With so many professionals looking for jobs while the economy slowly recovers, companies are getting flooded with resumes, and internal recruiters spend most of their time wading through them. They often only find one or two qualified candidates in the thousands of resumes they read.
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal (Recruiters Rethink Online Playbook) emphasized a change in internal recruiter tactics and company strategies for finding new employees. The article confirms what we’ve believed for a while, a recruiter who actively hunts for qualified candidates is more likely to find the right fit for a client’s needs. This means moving away from the online job boards and the hundreds or thousands of resumes job postings bring in and toward a more active search process.
When you want to buy a car, you don’t wait for companies to contact you and ask you to buy one of their cars. You don’t just pick one from the pile of marketing postcards in your mailbox or because you’ve seen a commercial for it on TV. You’re looking for something reliable, something that fits your needs, and something that matches who you are. So you do your research, test drive a few. You know, that if you want to find the best car, you’re going to need to go out and look for it. The same concept applies when hoping to find the best employee or consultant.
When we’re looking for the right candidate for our client, we know we’re going to need to go out and look for him or her (research), we’ll interview when we think we’ve found a good fit (test drive), and we’ll consider both the job requirements and culture fit, before putting that candidate in front of our client. You can’t let job boards do the work when you want the right fit. They don’t work hard enough.
As companies move away from posting on sites like Monster, as the WSJ article claims, working with a good recruiter becomes important for the job-seeker as well. With less jobs posted, you’re less likely to come across that perfect-fit position on your own. While employers are seeking referrals, they’re also looking toward staffing service or recruitment firms to simplify their search and actively seek the best employee for their contract or permanent position.
The concept of pursuit is not a new one, but we’re glad companies are recognizing the value of recruiters who actually recruit.
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