HR ideas…from Jeffery Giesener – CEO – SourceMob.com
Hire the best — leave them alone to drive results…
I don’t have to tell you about how difficult it is in today’s economy to attract the best and brightest talent for niche positions, especially in IT, engineering, healthcare and others. You know you are in a war for talent every day.
But what would happen if you had a tough-to-fill job department and a chunk of those employees left with their boss? Or what if you had to start recruiting from scratch to catch up for a new high-tech division just being launched? What would be your biggest challenge to getting your organization back on its hiring feet?
Whatever challenges arise at the workplace at any given moment, there’s one that will forever stand out: it’s the people, plain and simple, that make the difference in good and bad organizations. Without top-notch people you won’t have top-in-your-field results. This is true of a company that’s been around for a hundred years — or one that’s just starting out.
The recruiting challenge just doesn’t stop. Just because you have a good workforce in place now doesn’t mean you won’t have to make major adjustments in the future. You must always have your finger on the pulse when it comes to what kind of people are walking into and out of your organization.
You must always know how to own the challenge of getting and keeping your specific industries best and brightest talent. As simple as this sounds, it can also be dizzyingly complex because of how our world of work has changed. There are now, in just the last couple of years, many innovative ways to go about finding and hiring the right people, from growing the use of social recruiting channels like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+, and mobile messaging to leverage your own employee and candidate networks for referrals. But it is clear — and make no mistake about this fact — that your candidates, all of them, want to be recruited differently today and most no longer want to be forced to return to your career site to see your jobs.
They are on the go 24/7 and want your jobs and conversations to go to them wherever they are: online, social, their communities and on mobile.
Similarly, candidates themselves have become super savvy in their quest for the perfect job at the perfect company. Organizations — especially those in the science industry, for instance, where specialized talent is at a premium — can’t afford to rest on their laurels in their quest to woo potential employees.
Your job as a recruiting manager is to ultimately get and keep those employees who will effectively contribute to your company’s bottom line. It’s a serious proposition, and whether or not you are successful at it, the challenge will remain. Now your job is even more challenging. Next up is the newest trend to prove you can do all of the above, while also showing your C-Suite a ROI (Return on Investment) on your hiring dollars spent. Are you ready for that trend?
If (and when) this challenge comes directly to you, you need to have a grand plan in your pocket for overhauling your workforce. So it is time to start now. But it must start with a solid platform of On-Demand Analytics, which your Recruiting Department controls — not marketing or IT. That’s not something you can do on a whim. That also takes solid planning. But since you need both qualified and quantity of candidates, for example, starting with the following strategies will get your momentum going.
First, it is all about strategy. Keeping professional, traditional, social and virtual Talent Communities of people that are updated and maintained online is a perfect way to begin. By the way, most Applicant Tracking Systems do not do an adequate job in this area because they lack the candidate engagement components or detailed search criteria by population segment. Make use of smart social recruiting and mobile digital campaign tools and job alerts that are opt-in and permissioned tied to owning your own data. Next you may find yourself tempted to bury yourself in the sourcing minutia (are you saying to others or yourself, no time for more or don’t know how), but as a recruiting manager, you must also invest in things that will help maintain your Brand HR presence with a specific Talent Community. You must get out from behind the desk and LEARN.
Second, when its time to pull the trigger on the next wave of hiring. Mine all your networks and communities (this is where maintaining professional networks obviously comes in very handy). Your networks can clue you in on people who are actively or passively looking and potentially a good fit. Other managers, employees and candidates (when organized properly) can also alert you to passive or active candidates who might be open to change and you don’t know about. This one seemingly simple step can often be a gold mine of potential talent — you may even find the right person relatively quickly if you’re lucky. We all know saving job fill rates is critical to organizational profitability.
Third, repeat one and two above. Your employees in tough-to-fill companies are the perfect place to start to fill positions by using internal and external referral networks. It is not all about referral incentives. Employees first and foremost want to fill their departments with competent staff. You need to put in place strategies for how to accomplish this.
Hiring the best people for your tough-to-fill positions is no doubt a daunting task, as it is for every business, big, medium or small. No one process or set of rules will be the answer for every employer. Be open to today’s additional recruitment search manifested in using online social and mobile media, be open to new tools like employee referrals, video from your company and Talent Communities, not to mention developing career pages that speak to your candidates first. Please…Please don’t lead them through dry search pages, not to mention adding internal and external opinions and testimonials.
The more you polish your skills for sourcing the best talent, the more you might find that you won’t have to use those skills often. I would be happy to have a virtual visit to discuss your own challenges filling difficult nice positions. Simply reach me at jeff@sourcemob.com or call me at 952-417-6555.
ABOUT SOURCEMOB: SourceMob integrates Internet, social, talent community and mobile recruiting solutions to help talent acquisition professionals recruit the very best candidates for tough-to-fill positions. SourceMob’s Recruiting Solutions, Analytics and HR Media Services distribute job content and conversations providing a job posting springboard to over 3.5 million candidate profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, mobile and all of the major search engines. We help you engage with your candidates and capture niche Passive candidates. Our solutions also enable Mobile Quick Apply and candidate application management services to create efficiencies, fill jobs faster and lower recruiting costs.
Best,
Jeffery
Jeffery Giesener
CEO/Founder
SourceMob.com
952-417-6955