Craig Fisher is the Head of Global Marketing and Employer Brand Strategy at Allegis Global Solutions, and founder of TalentNet LLC events and consulting. He helps employers, job seekers, sales organizations, and even HR tech firms brand themselves to build stronger human connections.
We chat with Craig to discuss how he has reached the top of the recruitment industry by focusing on empowering people, but we also delve into the most common mistakes he sees recruiters make, the hardest lessons he has learned along the way and more!
What’s your key to success?
With over 30 years of industry leadership, we have been successful by focusing on people and caring. We believe in supporting the communities where we live and work through volunteerism and philanthropy.
Our Allegis Group Foundation helps causes that align with our mission:
- Providing individuals with life skills to reach their full potential.
- Strengthening the Workforce through career development and access to employment for underserved adults.
- Employee Engagement by supporting causes that our employees are passionate about.
We also invest heavily in our people through:
- Extensive training courses, employee awards, and recognition programs.
- Actionable employee engagement programs.
- Diversity and Inclusion Employee Resource Groups and Diversity Councils.
- Volunteer days to support local charities that are important to our employees.
What can we do to build better connections with candidates?
- Brand yourself! Make it easy for job candidates and customers to find you when they search for a recruiter to partner with.
- Be Human! Don’t be so buttoned up that your audience can’t get to know you. Share something personal about yourself even on places like Linkedin to ensure you are memorable and personable before someone ever has to decide whether to call you back.
- Share great content in social places! Part of having good personal SEO is being a good network citizen because of search engines like fresh content. Give more than you ask. I suggest a 5:1 give-to-ask content sharing strategy that emphasizes sharing personal stories, helpful 3rd party articles, and fun content more than asking for referrals or job applicants. Give often and every once in a while let your network where you’ve built trust know that you’re hiring.
What are the most common mistakes you see recruiters make?
Recruiters often either rely too much or too little on automation and technology. The balance is critical. You can’t automate every task and rely on your tech to do all of your communication and relationship building. Job candidates still prefer high touch over high tech. At the same time, you must utilize the systems at your disposal consistently for proper tracking and nurturing of your talent pool.
Finally, when in doubt, pick up the phone. It never hurts to have a live conversation with a candidate or hiring manager. We sometimes can rely too much on emails and text messages.
What hard lessons can you share with us?
Stay steady and don’t put all your eggs in one basket. It’s great to land big clients or make multiple placements. But the economy is fickle. I’ve been through multiple recessions and boons. You can’t get too excited about either situation. Recruiting is up and down, so you have to remain centered with your mindset. When I’ve had losses, I’ve learned that they are to be expected and to have my business spread out to many industries or customers. If you get too up and down, you will burn out, bottom line.
What’s your best source of hire?
Referrals are still the best source of hire. If you treat customers and job seekers right, they will refer their friends and colleagues to your organization. We have a rich referral community because we foster great relationships with employees and clients.
What’s your tech stack?
Personally, I use Hootsuite and Crowdfire for sharing and monitoring, the Adobe Suite and Camtasia for creating, my iPhone and lots of Google and Chrome apps for searching and sourcing. At an organizational level, we are an Office 365 and Salesforce shop with strong partnerships with companies like Smashfly, Olivia (by Paradox.AI), Enboarder, Ideal, and of course HiringSolved to power our client’s talent strategies.
What’s up next for recruiting?
AI and automation will become second nature – just another tool like the internet or smartphone. But the app economy isn’t the passing fad much thought. Cloud workers are making 2x-3x what their full-time counterparts are earning. Recruiting will have to adapt their contracts and hiring strategies to incorporate the next wave of talent, which is very on-demand and not locked into one organization.
