StaffLeads will be sponsoring the second lunch at the Fordyce Forum on June 6th between 11:30 am and 1:30 pm. We’ll be handing out copies of our recently developed Resume Delivery tutorials, free trials for our resume service, and a KILLER gadget for one lucky recruiter.

We’ve come up with3 toys that we think will make you the most envied person in the room, but we want to hear what YOU think would be the coolest prize to get at the conference. Be sure to vote below, or throw in any opinions/ideas for other cool gadgets that would make the job or liefe easier/more fun!

GADGET #1: BLACKBERRY 8800

This phone has the easiest email setup I’ve ever seen, and is arguably the most business-minded phone out there. Perfect for staying in the loop even if you’re not in the office.

GADGET #2: CARDSCAN BUSINESS CARD READER

There are a lot of buisness card readers out there, but from my experience, the CardScan executive reader is the fastest and easiest to use.

GADGET #3: NINTENDO WII

While the Nintendo Wii might not make you a better recruiter, it will definitely help you kill your boredom while keeping you in shape… well that’s what us Wii addicts keep telling ourselves anyways :-)

So what’ll it be? I’m personally leaning towards the BlackBerry for it’s practical uses, but your vote could sway me.

Cast your vote, or leave a note!

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• Posted in Recruiting Tips, StaffLeads News | 1 Comment

This post is the first in a series called "Internet Resume Delivery" where I’ll show you tips on how we get our resumes inexpensively and in great quantity using the Internet.

Here’s a question I get all the time: "Where are all these resumes coming from?"

As you know, at StaffLeads, our main job is to bring in targeted resumes for our clients. I’m not talking about a handful, but literally STREAMS of resumes.

We learned really quickly that if we were going to be able to compete with industry giants like Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com (even on a microscopic level), it was going to take some "outside the box" thinking and practices.

Here’s just one of those methods:

USING GOOGLE TO FIND CHEAP RESUMES

I know a lot of recruiters are not familiar with Google’s advertising application called adwords. there are entire books dedicated to understanding and mastering Google Adwords, but for the purposes of this post, we’ll stick to the very specific info that brings in thousands of resumes for our clients every day:

1. Sign up for Google Adwords: If you or your company does not have an Adwords account, signing up is very simple, just start here: http://adwords.google.com

2. Create a campaign: Google Adwords has options for you to either have your ad show up in their search results, or on websites that receive payment for displaying your ads on their pages. The search option is valuable, and we’ll talk about it in another post, but for this lesson, we’re going to use placement targeted campaigns. Below is an example of how these ads look on pages that utilize the Google Ad program:

The cool thing about the site placement option is that you can actually choose what sites you want your ads to show up on. You even have the option of only displaying to very specific demographics, including geo targeting.

3. Selecting your sites: This step is a little tricky, and will ultimately determine the overall success of your campaign because the type of site determines the type of visitors, which willl (you guessed it) determine the quality of resumes you get.

EXAMPLE:

If you’re a technical recruiter looking for .NET developers, you would want your ad to show up on sites where .NET developers are most likely to take interest in a job ad. A quick Google search for ".net Updates" will show you millions of sites that cater to .Net developers. A few minutes of research will also pull up a number of sites that have the google advertising on them.

If you don’t have time to research, you can simply grab the first 10 or so websites and Google will find similar sites to suggest. Google also allows you to choose where on the sites’ pages you want your ad to show up at.

4. Writing Your Ads: Using this method will typically yield the higher qualified passive jobseekers, so your ad is really going to need to stand out. Again, copywriting in itself is an entire study, but I would say that by offering the benefits of the job opening in your ads is very important. For example, you might want an ad that looks like this:

APPLY ONLINE NOW
Experienced .NET Developer Needed
Top Salary Plus Health Benefits
www.staffleads.com

5. Only Pay When Someone Clicks Your Ad: Google gives you two options to pay for your advertising: CPC (cost per click) or CPM (cost per thousand people who SEE your ad). Obviously in this case, we’ll only want to pay for jobseekers who are interested enough to click the ad, so you’d want to choose CPC.

Google will ask you to "bid" on your ads, where you can offer as low as $.01 per click or as high as $10+ per click. A strategy we use is to start bidding around $1.50, then gradually lower the bid as we determine the success of the campaign.

Now, all you’ll need is a web page with your job posting and application, and you can start receiving applications immediately. The campaign could use some tweaking to lower the cost-per-resume, but once you have it optimized, you’ll have a steady stream of applications coming in.

I hope this helps some of you break free from the "standard" methods of getting your resumes. I’d like to see any thoughts you might have about this, and as always, ask as many questions as you want.

• Posted in Recruiting Tips | 4 Comments

 

I have a laundry list of reasons why I wouldn’t use resume databases for recruiting, but I think the number one "headache" is the confidential resume. 

Don’t Blame The JobSeeker!  

Not that I don’t completely understand why the jobseeker isn’t interested in having their contact information stored for the whole world to find and exploit; with identity theft crimes running rampant and employers having subscriptions to the same resume databases, we’re lucky that ANY of the resumes have complete contact information accessible. This is a major reason why the whole idea of a public resume database is completely flawed. 

Who Pays? The JobSeeker…  

Unfortunately for the jobseeker, having a confidential resume stored is a one-way ticket to getting skipped by the recruiter with any kind of deadline (or pipeline for that matter). Unless the resume is phenomenal or one-of-a-kind, it just doesn’t make financial sense to chase down every confidential resume. 

The Problem Is Getteing Worse  

On general sites like Monster and Careebuilder, I’ve seen a major spike in the number of confidential resumes during recent years: an entire article could be dedicated to the reasons why (and I’ll talk about it), but for this post the point is that confidential resumes are becoming more popular, but the cost of the resume databases is staying the same.  

There Is At Least 1 Solution:  

StaffLeads addresses this problem by taking the resume directly from the jobseeker with completed contact information and ONLY sending that resume to the recruiters who are trying to fill the position the candidate is qualified for. 

Are you plagued by "confidential resumes"? Do you skip them, or spend time trying to find out who the resume belongs to? Let’s hear it! 

 

• Posted in Job Boards, Recruiting Tips, Resume Best Practices | 3 Comments

If you’ve been on the Internet for the last year or so, I’m pretty sure you’ve heard of Squidoo. For those who haven’t, it’s a widely used platform that allows professionals to share their knowledge on any topic under the sun.
 

Some of the top companies in the world including Yahoo! and Microsoft have dedicated employees AND customers to make sure the world has an accurate (from their point of view anyways) understanding of their products and companies.

 

Since we’ve got a message that’s going to need some pretty loud shouting to be heard by the number of people we want to reach, StaffLeads has made the move to begin sharing information on Squidoo. (Plus, we didn’t want to feel left out!)

You can find our Squidoo Lens (posts on specific topics) at www.squidoo.com/staff-leads. Right now, we’re talking about the negative effects job boards are having on the talent acquisition and recruiting industries.
 

If you’re a regular squidoo-er (or squid?), stop by, leave us a note, and let me know what you think of the new digs!

• Posted in Job Boards, Recruiting Tips, StaffLeads News | No Comments

 
What’s more fun than spending $10,000 or more every month for online job board postings and getting a MILLION spam emails and phone solicitations?

 
EVERYTHING!
 
I was on the phone with a recruiter I met in San Francisco this week, and she brought up a point that I’d forgotten was a complete headache that comes with posting jobs on the major (and even niche) job boards: SPAM!
 
It’s one of the inherent flaws of online job boards. You post that you want to fill a job, and the unscrupolous sales person feels the need to call and sell you their solution. Not to mention the endless stream of “better, cheaper, more targeted” job boards that email your account until you finally have to shut it off.
 
It’s really got me thinking… how much money are companies actually spending to be spammed, and what would the job boards be prepared to do if their customers decided enough is enough?
 
I’ll be looking into this further, and definitely welcome any thoughts you have on the subject.

• Posted in Job Boards, Recruiting Tips | 5 Comments

 

Ignoring the internet as an important recruitment tool would be about as logical (and effective) as relying on a string stretched between two tin cans to communicate with someone on the other side of the country!
 
Recruitment professionals have access to more candidates today than was ever imagined possible — back in the day of “paper resumes”. Not only has the quantity of resumes grown in leaps and bounds, so too has the quality of candidates.
 

(more…)

• Posted in Recruiting Tips | No Comments

 
Staffing professionals once relied on the newspaper classified section, television, radio and telephone to reach their audience. With the advent of the internet, job boards (like Monster and Careerbuilder) were all the rage. From there, pro’s moved to the “big job era”, utilizing the likes of Yahoo Jobs and others. Welcome to 2008 and the “era of Social Media”.
 
What’s the difference between traditional media and Social Media? Simply put, there are three basic differences:
 
1. Social Media is just that, it’s “social” because it relies on interactions between people. This new media allows for the exchange of ideas and information, as well as an opportunity for discussions in real time. In the staffing world, this gives hiring professionals the ability to receive unlimited, current resumes 24-hours a day, 7 days a week.
 
2. Social Media is infinite while traditional media is finite. Television stations can only broadcast 24-hours each day, a newspaper is limited to a certain number of pages, etc. The staffing assistance rendered through Social Media is definitely limitless.
 
3. Traditional media cannot easily be changed. A newspaper can’t instantly change a story. CV’s can be updated, uploaded and sent anywhere in the world, to as many people as desired, in a matter of seconds.
 

Exactly what is “Social Media”? Well, I won’t give you Webster’s definition besides, that’s outdated already! Social Media is a broad term used to encompass any
number of activities that combine technology and social interaction – for the professionals in staffing that is a match made in heaven!
 
Some examples of Social Media you are probably familiar with (and may already be using) include internet forums, message boards, podcasts, blogs (like this one!), email, instant messaging, etc.
 
Incorporating “Social Media” in every-day staffing solutions is just smart business. There is no way to reach more people, more quickly than via the latest technology. Did you know the number of daily internet users has risen from 48 Million in 1996 to well over 1.1 Billion users today?
 
Social Media includes social networking sites, like Facebook (#1 in the 17-24 year-old crowd) and MySpace (with over 1 Million daily users). The United States is home to the largest social networking market, with 41 Million adults participating regularly. Most of us also commonly use media reference sites like Google and Wikipedia to gather information at the click of a mouse.
 
Some staffing professionals may have been dragged kicking and screaming into the brave new world of Social Media. Once there, however, the results are often immediate and users are hooked on this new way of interacting.
 
Around the world, companies are making the most of Social Media by:
 
- Use of video, photo and audio sharing sites to tell their unique story
 
- RSS (“Really Simple Syndication”) feeds – to get their information out beyond their own website
 
- Hosting “real” FAQs sections – candidates can ask questions and get their answers in real time
 
- Building relationships with online communities
 
 
If you’ve been considering taking the leap into the Social Media pool, “Come on in—the water is more than fine!”

• Posted in Recruiting Tips | No Comments

 
We always say recruiting IS marketing. And so we like what we see of this new study about the use of new media tools in marketing. Podcasts have a significant presence. Notice blogging is also included. Staffleads is both a blog and a podcast so we are already taking advantage of both.




Dr. John Sullivan’s most recent article titled “Top 10 Indications You Are a Dinosaur Recruiter” references podcasts/jobcasts as a great way to recruit. He says:

“They don’t use podcasts or jobcasts. The majority of new-school recruiting prospects probably don’t even know what a Walkman is. Instead, they love MP3s or iPods (if you don’t know the difference is you’re probably old school). If you think they’re just for music, put yourself in the old-school category. Even Walgreens is utilizing podcasts as a recruiting tool. If you haven’t made a recruiting-oriented audio or video message available for download on these devices, you are missing a great opportunity to communicate.”

Thanks John, we certainly agree.

• Posted in Recruiting Tips | 1 Comment

As salaries rise and the difficulty of finding new employees increases, I have a feeling some managers are actually looking forward to a recession.  Maybe not consciously, but the last recession gave companies reasons to rein back on information technology salaries, and brought some sanity back to the hiring process.

Of course, many companies took their cuts and pay cuts too far, but that’s a management issue, not a structural one.  When your employees are able to demand $10,000 and $20,000 raises, or when you see people leave taking jobs for twice what you pay them, it’s only natural to hope for some wage relief.

Like a thunderstorm that cools off a hot summer afternoon, a brief deluge can give you some breathing room in your budget.  There’s just one problem.

There’s no rain in sight.

According to the Hodes QTrac blog, demographics and the skills needed aren’t going to be favorable for companies if there is indeed a recession.

It’s also important to remember that as unemployment data hits the market, it doesn’t represent the “educated” workforce (Bachelor’s degree and above) but overall unemployment. So BLS reports overall unemployment is at 4.7%, but “educated” workforce unemployment is less than 3%.

While most HR/staffing professionals may hope a mild recession will help with labor shortages, they need to realize that the labor deficit is a demographic structural problem, not an economic cyclical problem.

The truth is there are more jobs available then there are candidates, and even the rise unemployment affects mainly low-skilled workers.  College-educated unemployment is at 3%, easily below the structural unemployment rate known as full employment, and that means that even massive layoffs at your competitor aren’t going to help you that much.

The good news is that jobs are out there.  If you’re a job-seeker that is struggling, that means the key to employment is doing a better job search.  The bad news is that companies that try to profit from an economic slowdown are going to find there’s very little reward in squeezing wages or recruiting

• Posted in Recruiting Tips | 1 Comment

 
It’s time once again to take a good look at some of the nasty mistakes we make that ruin our reputations as recruiters. I’ll be the first to admit that this is a painful post to write, but nonetheless, it’s something that if ignored could cost everyone a lot of money and time.
Before I start pointing out mistakes and poor practices, let me interject that everyone recruits differently. While you may be able to conduct a very thorough and effective interview over the telephone, someone else may need to see each and every candidate face-to-face. Your style of recruiting is important to your success. The mistakes I’ll point out are simply the breaking of the fundamental rules of recruiting that make hiring managers cringe at the thought of your recomendations.
 
Let’s take a look at some of those:
 
1. FAILURE TO PRESCREEN:
 
These days, many jobseekers hire out their resume writing to professionals. These people know EXACTLY what you want to see and hear to get their client in for an interview. Sometimes the perfect resume is a huge temptation to just have the candidate come in for the interview. After all, the resume is dead on right?
 
WRONG!
 
The 10-20 minute follow-up call to find out what salary requirements are and ask a few basic skill testers could be the difference in a lot of wasted time by the hiring manager.
 
No matter how tempting, before ANY interview is set, make sure you do a pre-screen.
 
2. GREAT PERSONALITY VS. GREAT SKILLS
 
It’s hard not to be guilty of this common error, because youre in the business of working with people. And most of these people are very likeable, or at least are trying to be to obtain a job.
 
Unfortunately, most companies’ bottom lines aren’t affected by their employees’ personalities, but by their skills and abilities. As a recruiter, you are the one who’s tasked with being the bad guy when it comes to weeding out the candidates who are not MOST qualified for the position regardless of how great they are to be around.
 
3. NOT ENOUGH CANDIDATES
 
Recruiters aren’t paid to make hiring managers “settle”. The job is to bring in top talent no matter what the position is. Recruiting, like almost everything else is a numbers game. When you give the hiring manager a large pool of highly qualified candidates to choose from, you are the superstar of the hour.
 
4. FOCUSING ON THE WRONG SKILLS
 
Your client is in need of several spanish-speaking customer service agents who understand how to use the Internet proficiently. If you spend all your time finding spanish-speakers, only to find out that none of them have any idea how to even turn on a computer, there’s no way they’ll be hired. And if they are, you can bet turnover will be a major issue and will certainly come back to bite you.
 
Be sure to familiarize yourself with the company’s and the position’s needs, and you’ll understand which skills are most important when you’re running tests against the candidates’ skills.
 
5. RELYING ON INTERVIEWS FOR ACCURACY
 
I know you have a sixth sense about these things. That’s what makes you so great at your job. But what if I told you that studies have shown that interviews only increase your chance of choosing the right candidate by a whopping 2%? You’d probably stop spending as much time doing it, right?
 
Think about this: an interviewee is going to say whatever it takes to get the job. It is up to the recruiter to put the jobseekers skills to the test. Questions, aptitude testing, and skill checking will take you much further than having multiple people asking the candidate the same questions over and over.
 
While there are definitely other common mistakes made in recruiting, these are the top 5 that send any hiring manager running for the hills if you commit them too frequently or at the wrong times.
 
So take a look at your practice, and if you see yourself doing any of these things, STOP!

• Posted in Recruiting Tips, Talent Retention | No Comments