Breaking Bad Recruiting Habits
According to research, recruiters will speak with at least 13,000 different people annually. WOW, that comes out to just over 35 per day! Throughout all these conversations, recruiters are searching for the most viable candidates to present to hiring managers and organizations. This can make candidates feel like pawns in a fast and confusing process. Recruiters would do well to recognize this and guard against it. Here are three ways good recruiters can sound “bad.”
1. They Turn Buzzwords Into Cheesepuffs
Recruiters tend to use buzzwords on candidates as if they are an unlimited supply of cheesepuffs: cheap, not filling and of very little value. Most candidates aren’t interested in how much jargon you can rattle off in one email. While you want to catch a candidate’s attention you can’t use phrases that are inherently empty. Instead of focusing solely on the jargon that the hiring manager included in the requirement, try honing in on what makes that candidate such a great fit. It’s also useful to remember that your company may have a specific lexicon that’s not as widely known outside your industry or organization and to keep acronyms and proprietary verbiage to a minimum. If you can’t explain a job without these vernacular crutches, look to some of your competitors or even job ads written on blogs and niche sites.
2. They Call Just To Call
On average, recruiters spend 78,352 minutes on the phone per year. They make a lot of phone calls. It’s a numbers game. But because they produce such a high-volume of phone calls, there is a danger of not doing proper candidate research. If you’re struggling to find things to chat about with candidates, simply turn to the internet and the proliferation of social data available on…well everyone! Find out about a candidate’s body of work, preferred methods of communication, past projects, even work history by visiting sites like StackOverflow, Dribble, GitHub, Behance or social media sites like LinkedIn and Facebook or Twitter. It’s easy to get an idea of someone’s likes and dislikes by getting a more complete picture than a resume and matching software can provide. When you pick up the phone to talk to a candidate, make it count! (Because no one likes phone calls anyway).
3. They Don’t Always Remember What Matters
Again, recruiting is a numbers game. And only the best recruiters stick around to see if a great candidate will someday be ready to accept a position in the future. Understandably, it’s about making good use of your time when you’re trying to find viable and interested candidates to present to hiring managers. But why not work the funnel?
A young recruiter once called me to pitch a sales position. I politely explained to him that I was not interested in direct sales positions, but I would be interested in future digital marketing openings. It was refreshing to have a recruiter listen so attentively…until I got a call from the same recruiter, offering me another sales position.
Great recruiters go bad when they don’t invest in even the simplest tracking or CRM tools. Many applicant tracking systems offer these record keeping capabilities and make remembering what candidates want and don’t want much easier.
Habits Don’t Have To Be A Bad Thing
We’ve all developed daily habits that drive our professional lives, which is not a bad thing. But when these habits cost time and money, then it’s time to re-evaluate. Recruiters have to stop inundating inboxes with cheesy and shortsighted direct marketing messages that only alienate prospective candidates, or worse, insult them!
Sixty-six percent of employees intend to hit the job search market and 44 percent of employees feel they’re not valued by their employers. The talent is ripe for the plucking. Start breaking bad recruiting habits today!