Dear Barb:
I feel more and more that we are competing with the job boards, LinkedIn and social media for our candidates. By the time we get them through an interviewing process, they’ve found another job. I’m not seeing all of this technology as helpful. I’m seeing it as a threat. How can we compete, when it’s so easy for our candidates to find interviews on their own?
Susan P.
Ft. Meyers, FL
Dear Susan:
There was a time when recruiters were convinced that classified ads were going to put them out of business. Then it was the influx of corporate recruiters that was the threat. The Internet, job boards and social media are all forms of communication that we can utilize to our advantage.
The one piece of advice I can give you is to send your candidates on more than one job. Most people like to make a decision based on choices. If you only send a person to one opportunity, they will go online and use their network to obtain other interviews. Your goal should be to try to send every candidate on three different opportunities. You can only do this if you are specialized in a specific niche.
Top talent is becoming more difficult to identify, hire and retain so our future looks very bright. The minute you schedule an interview for a candidate, you need to actively market them to other clients or prospects in order to schedule additional interviews. Your goal should also be to have three candidates on every final interview.
Technology is filled with opportunities as well as challenges, but we are not going to be replaced by technology. Recruiting has been, is and always will be a relationship building business.
Barbara J. Bruno, CPC, CTS