Why Recruiters Should Focus on Passive Job Seekers

Why Recruiters Should Focus on Passive Job Seekers Think back over your last 9-10 hires. Where were they sourced? Chances are, based solely on statistics, 7-8 of them were not looking for a new role and reached out to you based on your EB. They likely either came from your social media presence or employee referral. The current job market is heavily skewed in favor of the candidate. That means that regardless if they’re in the minority as an active job hunter, or in the majority as a passive seeker if you aren’t dedicating at least some of your energy and budget to recruitment marketing you’re missing ~80% of your potential new hires. We’re going to pause for a moment to clear up some definition confusion. An active job seeker is someone who is either unemployed or unhappily employed and actively conducting a search for a new position. Counter to that, a passive job seeker is someone who is NOT actively looking to move companies, either because they’re happy in their current role, or just because they haven’t thought about it. Passive candidates make up an estimated 80% of the workforce, meaning that while they make take some persuasion, these folks will move companies for the right role, at the right time, and with the right company. Recruitment marketing is the practice of cultivating your company’s employer brand (EB) so that when these people see that perfect opening with you, they jump in and apply. Between this and directly going after a particular candidate, you find on your own or have referred to you you have a picture of passive recruiting. Passive Recruiting Entails a Major Shift in Approach Active recruiting looks very much like traditional recruiting. That is, you craft a job description, post it to job boards, then wait for applicants to find it. If the response is low, you may supplement by trolling the job boards for appropriate candidates with their resume posted, indicating their status as an active job seeker. Passive recruiting, on the other hand, looks a lot more like inbound marketing. You’re posting on social media, writing blog posts, responding to other people’s comments on Facebook, and otherwise engaging with your following online. Your audience on these platforms have all expressed an interest in your company, your EB, and your EVP as demonstrated via your presence, making them de facto passive job seekers in that they will jump at the opportunity to join the company should the right opening appear. Both approaches are valid and a solid recruiting strategy should include some amount of both. The question is, why add passive recruiting to an existing active effort? From our experience, there are 7 main reasons the passive recruiting approach should be considered required for most companies. You already know a lot about them When you added recruitment marketing to your repertoire, you did create target personas, right? Then you already have a heap of information about your audience at your disposal. You can use that to tailor your content, as intended, but you can also use it to personalize your interactions with people. If you know, for example, that your target candidate for a particular opening is into a certain genre of movie, get acquainted with the newest releases and use that as a conversation starter. They require less energy and resources to onboard If someone who’s been following your presence for several months decides they’re ready to jump on board, chances are they’ve done their research. Studies show that somewhere north of 75% of candidates research potential employers before they apply. This takes a load off your onboarding team since these folks will know company history, mission, values, etc. And since they’re likely already working in their field, there won’t be a lengthy learning process while they get up to speed with how things work. You need to build up your talent pool The idea of a talent pool is nothing new. What is new is how you can fill yours up with high-quality potential applicants simply by asking for contact information. Use a form that requires a name and email address for your gated content. Put out sign-up sheets at job fairs and conventions. Then get those folks entered into your newsletter database, segmented appropriately, and start sending them interesting, engaging, relevant content via email on a regular basis. Now, when an engineering spot opens up, you literally have a list of engineers you already know are interested to draw from. Quite simply, there’s a lot of them Did you catch that 80% statistic earlier? That’s the estimate of how much of the workforce would be interested in moving jobs but is not currently actively seeking that perfect position. That’s a lot of people. And the more of them you get your messaging in front of, the more of them you’ll have to choose from to fill that new opening. Heck, you may not even have to advertise the spot, just put the word out to your pool and see who jumps. They have the skill set you need Since the majority of passive job seekers are currently employed, you have proof that they know their stuff right there. Ask for a portfolio of current projects, or references to teammates just in case, of course. But as a general statement, if someone is a working programmer, they can likely program. You already know your EB resonates with them You receive an application from someone who, in answer to the question about sourcing, says they’ve been following your Facebook page for 6 months. And now they’re applying for the first time to your newest opening for a full-stack developer. This is a pretty good sign that they’re going to be familiar with your EB and that it resonates. Otherwise, why would a happily employed developer send out that application? There’s less competition for them You’ve been there. You’ve gone 2 interview rounds with a fantastic active candidate only to have them inform you that they’ve accepted an offer from your biggest competitor. That’s the one glaring downside to active recruiting, there’s a good chance you aren’t the only place they’ve applied, so you’re in a race for their attention and talent. With passive job seekers, you can take your time, resting easy in the knowledge that since they reached out to you, they’re interested in you specifically and you aren’t likely to run into this sort of time crunch. About the Author: Adrian Cernat is the CEO and founder of SmartDreamers, a platform that helps companies reach more, better candidates in record time by automating recruitment marketing activities to accelerate online talent acquisition. SmartDreamers was founded in 2014 and currently operates in Europe, the US and the APAC region.  

How to Create a Workplace Culture of Acceptance - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

How to Create a Workplace Culture of Acceptance - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career This week I would like to include David Mesa’s ideas and opinions about creating a workplace culture of acceptance in my article. David Mesa, Chief Development Officer of PJ’s Coffee, an experienced leader with over 25 years at the management level has created robust company culture through building trust, acceptance and understanding with his team members. His tips on how others can do the same below: Lead with Optimismâ€" It is important to set the tone from the top. Ensure employee relations, whether it be a meeting or a one-off email, are done in a positive tone that shows you believe in the outputs and capabilities of your team members. This leads to employee empowerment and employee retention in the long term. One way to do so is to start each morning by sending your team members a positive and encouraging email, this will set them off on a high note for the rest of the day. Encourage Mistakesâ€" While detrimental mistakes should be avoided, trying new things that don’t turn out can be a great opportunity for growth. Mesa, takes a very hands-off approach by delegating and then encouraging autonomy. When employees come with questions, he will encourage them to try to find their own answer first. He encourages other leaders to do the same. While mistakes often occur, the learning associated with them can spark innovation. Allow Dissenting Ideasâ€" Mesa encourages his team members to buck tradition and take a leap of faith on new ideas knowing that stagnancy and resting on laurels is often what leads to an organization’s downfall. To make sure creativity is always top of mind, put together structured brainstorms these should be both planned and at the drop of a hat to keep employees fresh and enthralled. Make Collaboration an Everyday Experienceâ€" Collaboration allows team members to open up in a way that may not always be possible when honing in on projects. This helps to create natural trust. To help build this collaboration into everyday create small teams that work interdependently on projects.

Let Others See Behind The Polished Brand - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Let Others See Behind The Polished Brand - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Last week, I saw the beginning segment of my moms favorite guilty pleasure: Dancing with the Stars.   For the next 10 weeks, she and much of America will be watching as stars ranging from pop singer Gavin DeGraw to Super Bowl champion  Donald Driver,  legendary Gladys Knight, and Steve Urkel (ahem, I mean Jaleel White) struggle to pick-up complicated ballroom dances. Why do celebrities join DWTS? Every season I wonder why do the stars do this?  Here are people who have succeeded in their chosen profession, and who are really good at what they do.   Many of them have staff whose entire job is to figure out how to present that stars personal brand in the most advantageous way possible. So how  could doing  Dancing with the Stars have a positive effect on a stars personal brand?   Almost every single one of the stars is doing something that theyre not naturally good at.   Some stars will succeed and become amazing dancers.   But most of the others will fail.   And some of them  fail really, really badly while the world is watching. With the athletes and performers, at least  they have either the athleticism and showmanship to have a  chance.   But  how in the world could a Dancing with the Stars stint be good for the  Personal Brands of  people such as Kate Gosslin, Tom DeLay, 82 year old Cloris Leachman, and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak? Stacy Keibler, previous Dancing with the Stars contestant How it helps their personal brand The answer is  that Dancing with the Stars lets  people in behind the careful veneer that most stars project.   For a couple weeks, we get to see these idols struggle to learn something new.   We see their frustration and emphasize with them when they stumble during a performance or get a bad review.  And thats GOOD for  their personal brand because it reminds their fans that they are human.   And  the audience  loves them for it and even  vote to keep some participants on the show far longer than their dancing skills deserve! To me, the biggest lesson I get from Dancing with the Stars is that you dont always need to project a perfect personal brand.   In fact, it actually helps when you let people in to see what it takes for you to achieve something.   Especially if its hard.   Especially if you fail. When the audience watches Dancing with the Stars, they dont want to see a cast full of accomplished dancers in the first episode. Instead, they want to see a raggedy group of stars thats struggling to get through their first dances. Then, with each episode, the audience sees how the stars work hard at something new, and they cheer with each accomplishment and sympathize with every failure. Dancing with the Stars seems to tell us that we dont have to always project a perfect image.   After all, the struggle and risk of failure is what makes the stars on their show so appealing. So take heart in that, and know that  if the stars (advised by highly-paid image consultants) feel like its  good for their Personal Brand to let it slip that theyre human, you can too. Author: Katie Konrath blogs about creativity, innovation and “ideas so fresh… they should be slapped” at www.getfreshminds.com.   She works for leading innovation company, Ideas To Go.

Skills that Great Employees Have - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Skills that Great Employees Have - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Your academic or hard skills may be perfect on paper but if you don’t possess the below soft skills, there is a big chance that you won’t get hired by your dream company. Hard skills can always be taught but soft skills are mostly related to personality and trying to change someone’s personality is very hard. Therefore, if you don’t have the below traits, start improving yourself in order to get ahead of the competition. Self-Motivated: Great employees have self-motivation. They don’t wait for their managers to tell them what they need to do next but instead; they take initiative and go beyond what is expected of them. Also, they don’t run away from taking responsibility and can even handle the most difficult tasks. Communicator: Every job needs good communication skills. Therefore, every employer prefers someone who can express themselves clearly both verbally and in writing. Employees with good communication skills can communicate goals, tasks, issues and concerns with their team members easier. This not only speeds up the work but also makes sure everybody has the same understanding of what is needed. This is probably one of the most sought after skills. Positive Attitude: Employees with positive attitude are generally more liked by other coworkers and perform better in the workplace. For example; you have two coworkers and one of them is a happy and energetic person and the other one is pessimistic and always complains about everything. Who would you prefer to work with in this situation? The person who brings everyone down or who cheers up everyone? I am sure the answer is clear. Get Things Done: Throwing out ideas and being an idea person is ok but companies need people who can turn these ideas into reality. Ideas alone do not bring money to companies but execution of these ideas will. For this reason, an employee who can get things done in a timely manner worth his/her weight in gold. Team Player: An employee who can work together in harmony with a team is preferable compared to someone who likes to work by themselves. This type of employee should wear different hats  when needed such as being a leader, executor or brainstormer. Adapt to Technology: Technology changes every day and companies invest new tools to automate their business processes. However, there are still lots of people who don’t want to use technology because they think technology will replace their jobs and as a result, they will get laid off. Technology is here to simplify your job not to replace it. Technology cannot make judgements nor establish relationships. Therefore, employees who like new technologies and can adapt to them easily are ideal.

Empower Your Workforce with HCM Solutions

Empower Your Workforce with HCM Solutions Have you struggled to engage your payroll and HR team to think beyond the daily tasks and delve deeper into strategy??Do your larger projects get pushed by the wayside because so much time is spent entering information and processing paper forms?eval?What about general staff engagement? Does your staff know and understand how their benefits work?Today’s Human Capital Management ?Today’s cloud-technology allows for single sign-on systems with up-to-date compliance information and the opportunity for personalized reporting.?The time your team can save not having to deal with manual entry or multiple entry points, eliminating paper forms, generating specific reports, and tracking down employees to update their info can be reallocated to those big projects you wish could be started.?With one entry point for information and automated guidance and alerts than ensure every box is checked and all crucial information is gathered, you eliminate those time-consuming tasks and empower your e mployees to see beyond the day-to-day.Additionally, your staff as a whole, beyond the HR department, benefits from an HCM system that allows for self-service and visibility.eval?Employees can be granted access to view their paystubs, PTO, current benefits and sign up during open enrollment periods all through one system. When employees are able to view their personal information at-a-glance, it saves your HR team from having to look up information for them, interrupting their other work.?With guided forms from onboarding, to open enrollment, to whatever you may need, employees can make sure all the relevant information is filled out and don’t have to worry about missing something crucial that can affect their status or benefits.?Today’s HCM systems are an excellent means of engaging and empowering your employee base to take charge of their accounts and monitor their information.Employee engagement is one of the hottest topics in workplace culture and success in today’s changin g world. With the right HCM system, you can give your employees and prospective employees the opportunity to feel empowered.?Plus, your HR team will thank you for relieving them of the mundane tasks and guiding them toward more exciting and leading-edge ways of thinking about a career in HR.?Get those big projects started and cross the daily tasks off your list by maximizing the HCM technology available to you. Your staff and your business will thank you for it.

Summary Sunday Modern Job Search Help

Summary Sunday Modern Job Search Help Do you have the skills and knowledge necessary for a modern job search? In case you havent updated your job search skills in awhile, this post will help update you! Each week, I share a compilation of some of the best/most popular articles from people I trust and respect. I hope youll learn something new that will help kick your job search up a notch! NETWORKING Your Guide to Making Your Job Sound Interesting (Without Going On and On) by Kat Boorgard | The Muse When youre asked what you do, do you panic? Most of us do. The old 45 second elevator pitch isnt going to work any more. You need to use ideas from this article to shorten and spiff up your pitch! INTERVIEWING 6 Smart Questions Youre Probably Forgetting to Ask In a Job Interview by Áine Cain | Business Insider These are some of the most important questions that will produce the most valuable information! ALWAYS ask these questions during your job interview! How To Survive Panel Interviews by Heather Yamada-Hosley | Lifehacker Interviewing with a panel of people doesnt have to catch you off-guard or be intimidating! Here are some tips to help make the experience less stressful! (Thanks to Heather for asking me to contribute to this article!) LINKEDIN An Authentic LinkedIn Profile: More than Just Bragging by Wayne Breitbarth | YouTern This article contains 7 ways you can tip the scales in favor of your LinkedIn profile! Remember, people are comparing profiles and if youre is bare-boned or less than others, youll get dismissed. PERSONAL BRANDING 5 Quick Social Media Tweaks to Elevate Your Personal Brand by Kat Boogaard | Inc. These are very do-able actions you can take to enhance your online reputation and visibility. Try some today! TWITTER Ive always been a huge fan of Twitter. You can gain networking traction and online visibility! Ill be participating in a Twitter chat with Ann Smarty @SEOSmarty on Tuesday this week! Tomorrow shell post the questions here. Follow along by following the hashtag #VCBuzz Thrilled to be chatting with @seosmarty on #VCBuzz 8/29 at Noon ET! Were discussing how to get noticed in your #career! pic.twitter.com/nxknIYKj9n â€" Hannah Morgan (@careersherpa) August 24, 2017 SOCIAL MEDIA 5 Exciting Social Media and Marketing Trends to Know in 2017 â€" Noah Kagan [SSM055] by Brian Peters | Buffer This summary of marketing trends absolutely impacts how you market yourself and your career! Lift ideas from Noah Kagans summary to help you stand out! CAREER It’s YOUR Life. Are You in Control? By Frank Sonnenberg | Frank Sonnenberg  Online Check out this list of things you may (or may not) be in control of! 10 Skills That Every Employee Will Need To Thrive in 2020 (Infographic) by  Dylan Redmond | Social Talent Be forward-thinking! The team over at Guthrie Jensen have put together this infographic together, listing the 10 skills you’ll need to thrive in 2020. Infographic by Guthurie Jensen

Letter Resume - Is Writing a Letter Resume Enough?

Letter Resume - Is Writing a Letter Resume Enough?Writing a letter resume will definitely help in your getting employment. Nowadays, with so many job seekers, many are getting stressed and cannot write a letter resume and that is why they think that they are unable to get a job. In order to help them in this regard, I will present you with some tips.The first and the main point which are to mention is that it is not about trying to sell yourself. In order to get good quality job, you must have knowledge about what you are talking about. So try to make your letter resume not your advantage but your disadvantage. Try to introduce your ideas on a different way and also try to stay away from any advertisement, present an image of a person who is interested in getting a job and then sell yourself as someone who is interested in getting a job. You need to make your presentation very appealing and attractive.The second thing that you must be aware of is that a letter resume must be written in such a way that if somebody reads your resume, they will immediately recognize your name and your skills. If you are able to write something such as: I am hiring for customer support, then you will be more than prepared for getting the job.In order to have your letter resume prepared, you must know that these days, there are many websites that offer you the chance to do this online. It is just like doing a search engine and once you have found the right one, you can start writing your letter resume.Before writing your letter resume, you must understand that you should always put in the order that you are going to use. It will always be a good idea to write your resume first, then go back to write your letter resume.You must make your letter resume more attractive and interesting and your resume should be longer than the letter itself. Always try to write a bit more than what you write.The last but the most important thing that you must do is to always add something in between to make your letter resume more interesting. If you can write at least a word per minute, then it will be better and more helpful.Writing a letter resume can certainly help you in getting a job. So you can have it and save your time.