Most job boards offer two primary services: a resume bank of registered candidates and the ability to post your jobs online where job seekers may see them. The tips below will help you enhance your ability to use both of these services to find better candidates and have your jobs found.

Most major job boards also offer excellent self-help, have resources dedicated to assisting you in learning how to use advanced features, and provide you with a variety of detailed statistics. You just need to ask. Once you’ve selected the tactics that you wish to execute, make sure that you consult your job board to determine how to implement them within their services and syntax.

The tips below have been made intentionally generic as to be applied to any job board.

Using Boolean Resume Bank Searching to Uncover Hidden Gems and Return Relevant Results

Boolean logic is a fundamental component of resume search engines across all job boards. With two simple tricks, your results will improve regardless of what job board you use.

• Increase results using buckets, such as similar terms, synonyms, and common misspellings to get greater results. This concept is really simple. In order to increase your results and make sure that you cast a wide-enough net to find the candidates you are looking for and your competition might have overlooked, you need to get creative.

  Say that you are looking for a “Great Plains Functional Analyst.” Now, the basic search would be: “Great Plains” OR “Functional Analyst.” But what if the candidate’s last role was as a Dynamics GP Consultant, and that is what appears on her resume? Your search would not uncover this candidate, so what should you do? Simply use buckets of like terms to increase your search net and return more results. The like terms can be synonyms (e.g., “Dynamics GP” OR “Great Plains”), similar terms (“Functional Analyst” OR “Consultant”), or even common misspellings (“GreatPlains”).

  In order to expand our earlier search, let’s create a Dynamics GP bucket to include all the ways someone might search: (“Dynamics GP” OR “Great Plains” OR “GreatPlains”) and combine it with our title bucket (“Functional Analyst” OR Consultant) to create a new improved query. This advanced query would look like: (“Dynamics GP” OR “Great Plains” OR “GreatPlains”) AND (“Functional Analyst” OR Consultant).

• Eliminate False Positives using “Not” or Additional Qualifiers. Sometimes, more results means more manual screening. Once you refine your search and start flexing your advanced-query muscles, you may find that some candidates who do not belong are flooding your result set. Typically, this occurs when a keyword can mean multiple things. Let’s review two techniques to reduce false positives. First, imagine that you are looking for a Solomon consultant. The basic search would be: Solomon AND Consultant.

  Try running this query in Google. You’ll find a handful of Solomon consultants; however, a majority of your results will be candidates who have worked in the past for Solomon Smith Barney. How can we eliminate these false positive results? Simply by using the “not” operator to eliminate all results with “Smith Barney.” The advanced search would look like this: Solomon AND Consultant NOT “Smith Barney.”

Remember to consult your job board for proper syntax and experiment! The best thing to do is to keep tweaking your query until you get the quality and quantity of resumes you are looking for, and then save that query for future use.

SEO: Get Your Jobs Found and Get On Top!

Search engine optimization has been around for years now. It refers to techniques used to improve the placement of websites on Web search engines through relevancy, and mastering the relevancy logic that determines the position results are placed. But what does it have to do with recruiting? Run a simple job search on one of the major job boards for “Great Plains” and 1,582 results are returned!

Just like Web search engines, job search engines have algorithms that determine relevancy when a candidate conducts a job search. If your job is buried toward the end of the search results, chances are that fewer candidates will see your job and your applicant pipeline will not be as rich. Some factors, such as the date the job was originally posted, may affect the results and be out of your control; however, there are things that you can do.

This is an area that requires working closely with your job board, for each board has specific code that determines placement. But there are some techniques that can be commonly applied.

• Most Important Words in the Job Title. Make sure to keep your job title short and include the most important keywords. Many searches give extra significance to the words found in the title. For example, if your job title is “Implementation Consultant” and a job seeker looks for Axapta, a job with the title “Axapta Implementation Consultant” will have better placement in the search results.
• Keyword Stacking with Caution. Make sure to repeat the use of keywords most commonly used; however, most search logic has advanced to a point where simply listing a keyword multiple times will not improve results. The best tactic is to keep your job descriptions short and simple while repeating keywords in the tile, responsibilities, and skills sections. Make sure that you are using the keywords that candidates will search for. Some job boards track and will share this information with you.
• Job Board Specifics. This is an area where you need to work closely with your job board. Some boards have specific tags and categories that affect candidate searches. Others will provide you statistics on the number of views and the number of applications to see what is working and what’s not. We’ve even seen some boards’ results affected when you stick keywords into the JobID, so ask and play around. You’ll be surprised by what you will find.

The best way to implement this tactic is to search jobs on the board you are posting and see who is appearing on top. Figure out why, and use their techniques. Keep trying until you see your desired results, and remember to contact your job board representative for help and statistics!

Advanced Features: Tracking and Automate

Job boards are competing fiercely, and they continue to release updates and new features that, depending on your recruiting process, may be of great value. Some of these features are very easy to use and are included in your service fees.

• Tracking. Many job boards now offer basic applicant and candidate tracking. For organizations with more than three recruiters, it’s best to purchase an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) that essentially provides customer relationship management capabilities where candidates are considered customers. The basic ATS features on the major job boards are continuing to improve. They provide greater functionality, allowing you to do things like track notes on candidates, the status of a candidate, and e-mail and application activity. This is a great feature for a small organization with a limited budget.
• Automated Searches. There are two types of automated searches. Job boards feature both. The first and most useful is a feature that sends you automated alerts when a candidate matches one of your saved searches. Imagine that you’ve created the advanced query using the techniques described above and would like a continuous daily feed of candidates who match. Candidates, on average, have a two-week shelf life; that means you need to contact them faster than your competition. This way, you’ll be able to get a hold of them the same day they posted their resumes.

  Another great feature that is intended for job seekers that may also be of use to you is the ability to save automated job searches. For one, you can keep an eye on the competition by seeing who else is recruiting for the same things you are. In addition, you can verify that your jobs are getting out there to candidates who are relying on these automated searches.

Remember to work closely with your job-board providers in exploring how to enable these features and techniques. With some minor adjustments, you should see immediate and long-term impact on your recruiting results!

Yesterday while I was having brunch with a friend, my cell phone buzzed with a new awaiting message. Thinking it was an important message, I anxiously pulled my phone out of my belt clip. I opened the message and gasped.

Perhaps if I had been seeking a vacation timeshare my reaction might have been different, but imagine my horror the first time I received an SMS SPAM text message on my cell phone. It read “MSG:Lookng to sell or rent your Time Share logon to – www.webu….”

My mind immediately jumped to thoughts of my cell phone buzzing and ringing day and night endlessly with a barrage of drug, weight loss, stock deals, and other unsavory SPAM advertisements!

This took me back the “old days” when the Web was young; I remember receiving my first SPAM email. While it is said that email is one of the greatest technology tools of our era, technology can be used or misused. This is why it is so important to learn how to effectively use email in your recruiting efforts, while avoiding mistakes that will land you in the Junk Mail folder.

Let?s start with a quick quiz: which came first, the Internet or email? Most people don’t realize that email predates the Internet; in fact, email was first used in 1965 as a way for users of MIT’s Compatible Time-Sharing System CTSS to communicate (this is time-sharing computing time, not to be confused with time-sharing vacation homes!).

Over the years email usage grew while more advanced technology was developed primarily for government and military use. By the explosion of the Internet, email became part of the common vernacular, and today eMarketer estimates that 147 million people across the country use email daily. Clearly, it is increasingly important to develop strategies when using email to improve your relationship with candidates. The last thing you want to do is distance them through abusive emailing tactics.

In developing your overall recruiting email campaign strategy, remember to address the following questions:

• What do you want to say?
• Who do you want to say it to?
• How often do you want to say it?

Taking those same questions and viewing them from the email recipient’s perspective, you must ask the following questions:

• What can I say that someone would care to read?
• Who cares to read it?
• When would they want to read it?

To keep things simple, we will focus on three areas that help address these questions, while providing actionable tactics. These are not all-encompassing but will offer you a foundation in evaluating your strategy:

1. Opt-in/Opt-out. Before you sign someone up for a newsletter or continuously send them job openings, do you ask whether they want to receive such emails? Do you ?opt-in? and ask whether you can sign them up for regular email communication or do you just assume you can, with an option for future removal from the list? The debate about which way is best has been going on since email was available to the masses. Studies show that when you ask before you send email, people are more likely to open the email, but at the same time you will have fewer email addresses to send, therefore reducing the reach of your message. You have to decide what fits best in your culture and your process.
2. Regular communications. Are you providing candidates you are courting a way to remain engaged with your company? Have you created a value-adding publication or newsletter that candidates would read and subscribe to? Are you providing them relevant industry news, association news, events they might be interested in, as well as salary and employment trends? Exposure is fundamental to relationship-building; if you create something of value targeted toward your candidates they will remember you and will appreciate the information. Likewise, if you bore them with junk that does not relate to their profession or industry they will think you don’t respect or understand them.
3. Automated email agents. I remember reading an article on ERE about how people are most open to consider a career change on their birthday or as part of a New Year’s resolution. Using basic emailing programs, I can create an automated emailing agent that automatically sends a birthday card or a “Happy New Year” card to candidates who made it to the final stages of our interviewing process but ultimately accepted competitor offers. Come January 2, when they are eating that leftover fruitcake thinking how miserable their commute is or how they can’t stand their boss, they get a nice email from you and are reminded that they have a choice! You can use this same principle in many creative ways.

If you use email wisely, by respecting and understanding your target audience, you will reap the rewards. Abuse it and you will alienate the same folks you are trying to reach.

Before we start talking about consultative recruiting, we need to quickly explore the concept of consultative sales. I first heard the term a couple years ago, when it was a fad in the business world to append the word “consultant” to the end of every title. Your plumber became your hydro-fluid consultant, your AC guy a climate-control consultant, and your mechanic an automotive consultant.

Naturally, salespeople latched on to this fad, always looking for a way to add prestige and improve their perception and title. The term “consultative sales” was coined and voila, suddenly everyone was consultant. Consultative sales was not something new; the best salesmen have been practicing it for centuries. And yet so few today understand the principle behind it.

I was working on a home-improvement project: building a home theater and looking for a specific size bolt for a custom projector mount. When I stopped by a local hardware store, I was greeted by a very well-spoken, knowledgeable sales attendant. He quickly understood what it was that I needed, asked me questions about the location of the mount, its dimensions, the weight of the project, and was generally interested in what I was building. Afterward, he walked me to the aisle where he picked up the four bolts I needed and placed them in my hand. I was so impressed that I asked about their trimmers (My lawn needed grooming, and it was time for a new trimmer). What he did next astonished me: he recommended I go to Home Depot! They have a better selection and price when it comes to trimmers, he said.

In less than 10 minutes, I felt that this individual and this small hardware shop was one I could trust, recommend, and turn to with any problem. This is the result of consultative sales. So what is it, and how does it apply to recruiting?

What Consultative Recruiting Is Not

I found this online:

“Consultative Recruiting involves gently leading the prospect to realize that by getting involved with your opportunity, they will more rapidly achieve their greater goals, of financial independence, improved lifestyle, security, happiness, health and wellness, etc.”

This was written by someone who most likely is attempting to sell you a magical formula, an elixir that will give you super sales strength and solve all your problems! It’s a scam; this elixir will do nothing more than turn your tongue green and make your hair fall out.

What Consultative Recruiting Is

The concept of consultative recruiting is very simple. You provide value to both the hiring manager and candidate, with the primary purpose of developing your relationship. The formula is that basic, and the results are astounding.

Do this with both sides of the recruiting equation, and you will find you are creating an army of allies. People will naturally give you referrals and engage your company. But you must make it easy for them to help you. If it’s easy, they they’ll be more likely to help.

Putting It into Action

Here are some simple ways to use readily available tools that you probably already have in place. We?ll start with consultative recruiting, and how it applies to candidates.

For Candidates

1. Providing Value – Give, Give, Give.

   Think of minimal investment for maximum value. What can you do that would benefit your target talent pool? Create and host a wiki where people can exchange information; hold an online contest with a free prize giveaway; sponsor free training and user groups. There are many ways to help. Survey your employees and candidates to come up with ideas. Ask them. You?ll be surprised what you discover!

2. Building the Relationship – Exposure and Intimacy.

   The closer your candidates feel to you and your company, the better the chance they will join your company or send you referrals. Create a blog for sharing your experiences, and be honest. Write freely about your company and work environment and encourage other employees to do the same. Hold open-house nights, and invite prospects and candidates to company happy hours and events.

3. When You Give, You Get – Make it Easy to Be Helped.

   Not all candidates will immediately jump at the opportunity to work at your company. Many will just not be a good fit. Make it easy for them to stay informed of job opportunities and give them a way to send you referrals. Stay in front of them, because they’ll forget all the value you provided if you don?t maintain contact. This does not mean that everyone who ever applied should get a monthly call from you. Invest your time wisely in the top candidates who have the potential to either join your company or refer people who can.

For Hiring Managers

The same three concepts apply to hiring managers. Whether or not you are a corporate recruiter or a third-party agency, applying these concepts will improve your working relationships and increase your productivity.

1. Providing Value – Give, Give, Give.

   You are the expert, their trusted advisor. Teach them, educate them, inform them. Stop complaining that hiring managers don?t understand the principles of recruiting. First become an expert yourself, and then you will be able to earn their respect and trust. Send them articles, provide them with industry trends, respect their time, and share only information that they will find valuable. With that trust, your job will become 10 times easier. You?ll have better communication and understanding.

2. Building the Relationship – Exposure and Intimacy.

   Does your hiring manager know the steps involved in your recruiting process? Do they know the number of candidates, resumes, interviews that you have to go through to present them one candidate? Give them a taste of a day in the life of a recruiter. Have you ever met them? I?m surprised at the answer some people provide to that question. You need to share what you do, and who you are. It makes for a more fruitful and enjoyable work experience.

3. When you Give You Get; Make it Easy to Be Helped.

   Have you ever had a situation where after days of waiting, you get feedback from a hiring manager only to find that the candidate is not available? What if you made it easy for the hiring manager to respond? Put a link in your email to the manager in which they can rate the candidate on the fly and provide feedback. Most importantly, communicate with your hiring managers. Let them know how they can help you, and most of they time they will.

Applying consultative sales techniques to candidates and hiring managers will make your life easier. Establish trust, and turn all those that you work with into advocates. Keep them informed, educated, and close by and watch your job become easier!

“C#.Net, ASP.Net, and MS SQL. Experience with ASP.Net a plus. Bachelors in Computer Science required. Experience with large database experience a plus. Excellent technical and non-technical communication skills required.”

Have you ever looked at the list of ingredients on the side of a cereal box? It looks like this:

“High fructose corn syrup, calcium carbonate, malt flavoring, artificial flavor, ascorbic acid and sodium ascorbate (vitamin C), niacinamide. To maintain quality, BHT has been added to the packaging.”

See the similarities? Can you imagine a marketing campaign where Kellogg’s tries to sell cereal with a one-page ad of ingredients? Pass me the oatmeal! To write the most affective job ad, you need to perform a thorough job analysis, which is time consuming. Lou Adler is the master of job analysis and performance profiles, but I want to focus on the minimal effort for the greatest yield. I’ll show you how to quickly take your list of ingredients, apply some basic marketing principles, increase your response rate, and increase the quality of your applicants. Your ad will help filter and recruit for you, decreasing time spent on junk resumes, increasing speed-to-fill openings, and maximizing your return on ad dollars.

The key to marketing is to know your audience and to get them to do what you want. The purpose of the job ad is not to tell the world how great your company is, or to demand a set of skills; it’s to sell, sell, sell! You are selling your opportunity in a saturated and competitive market. This is an ad, so let’s apply some age-old marketing principles and allow the ad to work for us. Focus on two things: 1) stressing benefits; and 2) a call to action.

Stressing Benefits

You need to make it about them – not about you. Job ads tend to focus on what you need, not what they gain; that doesn’t work in a tight labor market. You need to stand out amongst the crowd and penetrate deep within their minds.

• Stress what you are going to give the candidate both now and down the line. The candidate, like you, is interested in the bottom line – what’s in it for me? So go ahead and tell him or her. Make sure he or she knows it’s a beneficial relationship on both sides and include the challenge, opportunity to grow, advancement, and non-monetary aspects.
• Differentiate yourself from the rest. Think benefits! Rather than saying your company provides a work-life balance, go beyond the feature to the benefit of “more time with the family.” And don’t forget the unique perks your company offers – including specialized training to enhance your skill sets, and teambuilding outings to the ball game – as something tangible that people can imagine and get excited about.
• Paint a compelling picture. Take those benefits and expand them to include a lifestyle that the candidate will find attractive. Be descriptive and specific. Illustrate the full range of possibilities and advantages for joining your company and taking this opportunity.

Call to Action Always keep your audience and what motivates them in mind. You want them to pick up the phone and call you today. Spark their imagination so that they are excited to learn more.

• Motivate the candidate to act. Put a sense of urgency in the ad so they know that this opportunity won’t last long, so apply now. Better yet, make it clear that it’s a benefit for them to act quickly because you are growing fast; a new office is opening or a project is launching.
• Provide multiple ways to apply. Just as in your print advertising for your services or goods, offer a phone number, an email address, or even a live chat to answer questions and talk to candidates. Remember that some candidates cannot call or email you when they are at work. Imagine how convenient it would be if with a mouse click they can instantly chat with you discreetly about the opportunity.
• Make it easy for them. Don’t make it a hoop-jumping, marathon-running experience. You need these people now. You make it easy for your clients to buy, so make it easy for recruits to apply. And don’t sit on them once they have applied. Treat them with respect; if you want them to be responsive, then you need to be responsive.

Once you revamp your job ads, candidates will be more interested now that they have a clear picture of what the challenges and opportunities are. Rather than reading the side panel of a cereal box, they’ll feel they’re reading about a potential new and thrilling life. Lastly, they’ll be motivated to act, and you’ll make it easy for them regardless of where they are or when they see your ad!