The economy is humming along and we are facing historically-low unemployment rates. All of this is great of course except for if you are a recruiter looking for good candidates to fill the millions of open jobs.
LinkedIn and social media continue to be strong ways to find candidates. But it’s getting harder and harder to get through the noise of social media. And, while LinkedIn has many recruiting tools, it looks like everyone and their brother is tapping into LinkedIn for recruiting. So what are some other methods?
After speaking with several successful recruiters, we have gathered the top 5 pointers.
1.Build relationships with candidates you have placed.
If you have been in the recruiting business for a bit, mostly likely you have recruited a number of candidates. Maintain a relationship with these folks and follow their careers as they can serve as great repeat clients and/or introduce you to their friends or colleagues for future searches. This can easily be done by sending job anniversary or promotion congratulation cards, holiday cards or even just an email or two to touch base.
It may be worthwhile to ping those who have been with their employers for more than 2 years. Who knows—they may be unfulfilled in their jobs, unhappy with their bosses or just not getting the traction that they’d originally envisioned. Perhaps you can help them move on?
2. Expand beyond your industry.
Most recruiters focus on a specific industry be it IT, software, finance or marketing. We often times just focus on candidates within our coverage area. If we expand beyond our industry, we open ourselves up to a much larger pool of job seekers.
It is easy to dismiss a great candidate just because the person does not have direct experience in an industry. However, there are skillsets that can be applied across different industries and others that can be quickly learned. For example, a marketing professional who has a strong background working in the solar space can use her knowledge and connections within the clean air industry to crossover to an automaker wanting to enter in the hybrid auto market.
As recruiters, it is our job to be able to identify candidates with the right skillsets for a job and sell that candidate’s qualifications to the hiring manager. So sometimes, we need to help our clients think outside the job req.
3. Be open to re-entry workers.
Great workers take time off work for a variety of reasons. This is especially true for motherswho take a few years off to be with their children. For these folks, re-entry into the workforce can be difficult as hiring managers may think their skillsets are not up-to-date or they may not be willing to take a lower position than the one they left.
Successful recruiters see past all of this and instead sell all of the positives of re-entry workers: they are excited to work again, they may have gained (especially true for a parent going back to work) outstanding time management, conflict resolution and multi-tasking abilities, and most are open to re-entering in positions below their exit levels.
Hiring managers willing to hire re-entry workers get someone with great attitude, great skills and experience beyond what the position calls (and probably pays) for.
What a great win-win!
4. Network where you play.
Outside of work, we meet people just through our own everyday activities and interests. This can be at our hiking club, cycling group or gym. The folks we meet through shared interests often times become good friends or acquaintances and can be a great source for referrals or even be candidates themselves.
Befriending someone at the local spa may lead to an introduction to their nephew who’d be graduating from college with a degree in accounting. These connections can go in a variety of different directions—but it’s well worth the effort.
5. Talk to your children’s friends’ parents.
School is a great way to meet people, even if it is your kid’s school. You see the same set of parents every day during pick-up and drop-off and other school events. It’s simple to strike up a conversation and build relationships with these parents. Most of them probably work outside of the home so they can be a great pool of candidates. And, who have been taking some time off for their children may want to go back into the job market. You can help them!
What other ways have you found effective in generating more leads for good candidates?
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