This post is sponsored by MightyRecruiter. Be sure to join their upcoming webinar, Master Your Match-making Skills: Find Your Job’s Perfect Match, on Monday, February 13, and ask your questions first hand!
Recruiters are constantly asked to do more with less bandwidth, and 2017 is no exception. This year, 56 percent of companies report that they’ll increase their hiring volumes, but 65% of businesses also admit that they won’t be adding more recruiting headcount to shoulder the larger workload.
That means that recruiters are going to have to be even smarter and more efficient when it comes to finding those elusive and often fabled perfect candidates. Below are a few ideas for how to go about making the ultimate candidate-job match (note: none involve waiting around for the perfect candidate to apply to your job posting, and none involve sending out 1,000 bulk emails that aren’t tailored to what you’re specifically looking for in a candidate).
Here are 3 ways Recruiters Can Find that Elusive Perfect Candidate:
1. Network Out of the Box:
When you expand your network, you expand your reach – this allows you to connect to candidates you normally wouldn’t come across, which in turn furthers opportunities to make the perfect match. LinkedIn is still the number one networking site that recruiters use to look for talent. But if LinkedIn is your only networking site, then you’re really missing out. A lot of candidates are pulling their profiles off of LinkedIn because of the amount of recruiting spam they receive, and most rarely log in every day. Consider sourcing on other sites like Github, Facebook, Twitter, AngelList, Meetup.com, Behance, and Dribble. There are quite a few other networking sites to consider that are industry-specific; for example, Engineering Exchange and Fashion Networks. Also, consider hosting an offline networking event to meet local talent. These events can be low-key, and they don’t necessarily have to be about recruiting – consider having your first one be about building your brand and network, and go from there. And ask your hiring managers to pitch networking event ideas too.
2. Expand Your Knowledge of Positions, Companies, and Industries:
One of the biggest complaints candidates have about recruiters is that they pitch jobs without knowing much about the position or the company. This is true of both third-party and corporate recruiters. Before pitching a position to a candidate, aim to learn as much as you can about the job and the company, including things like team size, current projects, growth opportunities, the hiring manager’s work style, and company benefits. If you recruit in a specific industry, try to know as much as you can about that industry. For example, take software. If you’re recruiting in the software industry, you should know the difference between Java and JavaScript! Now there is no way for you to know everything about each job or company you’re recruiting for. If you get a job description with a term or skill you do not understand, Google it. Research it! Change is constant in almost every industry. And sometimes change occurs on not only a weekly basis, but a daily one. Take time out of your day to read the news, or better yet, set up Google Alerts on topics related to your industry or industries. Taking the time to expand your knowledge base allows you to relate to candidates a lot better – they’ll be more engaged in their interactions with you, conversations will flow more naturally, and your job of determining whether or not the candidate is a good match for the position will be a lot easier.
3. Write Better Job Descriptions:
Job descriptions are often vague, and too frequently resemble a long laundry list of requirements and qualifications – they rarely go into detail about what the day-to-day of the job entails. The best job descriptions are written for the candidate, allowing him/her to learn about how they’ll contribute to the company and play a role in a set of projects and initiatives. They also allow the candidate to firmly grasp what their work life will be like doing that particular job. And many job descriptions offer little information about the company. It’s important that you profile the company succinctly yet thoroughly in a job description – note the company’s mission and what their culture is like, and definitely note the perks/benefits the company offers. When you take the time to write a detailed and more exact job description, you better your chances of weeding out unqualified candidates, and bring yourself closer to connecting with that perfect match.
Tip: MightyRecruiter is an all-in-one hiring solution that has hundreds of professionally written job description templates that recruiters or hiring leaders in need of a quick solution can utilize.
Rethinking the way you go about finding that perfect candidate can be extremely effective. Remember, the perfect match is out there for every job – you, as the recruiter, just need to do a little work in the matchmaking department!
Don’t forget to sign up for MightyRecruiter’s free upcoming webinar, Master Your Match-making Skills: Find Your Job’s Perfect Match, on Monday, February 13, to learn about what steps you can take to find that ideal candidate.
