A new customer just sent us a testimonial and among many very nice comments the Corporate Human Resources Team Leader said the following: ” I have already recommended Talmax to a few companies. Talmax is an intuitive candidate management system that has enhanced our ability to source, screen and manage applicants efficiently. It was easy to integrate Talmax into our existing process and the automatic feeds to Simply Hired and Indeed.com create instant value for our organization. Best-of-all Talmax is an affordable solution for an organization of our size!”  (Perry’s Ice Cream, Akron, NY)

But, you want to know the very best part of these comments?  The author actually made 3 excellent suggestions that would provide additional features within Talmax that would enhance the usefulness of the software.  Because everyone today whether customer, vendor, candidate or supplier is so very busy, it’s often very difficult to get a written testimony about your product,

To receive such a complimentary testimony AND a thoughtful list of suggestions makes The Sourcerer sit up and listen because this is obviously a customer who cares.  I’d love to have a hundred customers just like Perry’s Ice Cream.  Great relationships in business are very special!

This time it is The Sourcerer who has a question and could use your input.  Is Social Media interfering with your business?

I haven’t been involved with the use of social media for recruiting candidates and business relationship building  for all that long now (Talmax does now automatically feed to both Facebook and Twitter).

I think the idea of using the relationships that exist on the social media sites to “touch” people who might not be currently looking to change jobs is an extremely useful idea.  It can save an employer a ton of recruiting dollars and identify candidates not available through traditional recruiting methods.

I think that the use of social media sites to develop additional business contacts works very well…perhaps too well.

I think that’s great, and useful and smart and… here’s my problem… since I’ve become more active in the use of social media , my inbox has been “attacked” by a multiplicity of people and vendors trying to get my attention, promoting everything from logo hand-outs to accounting software.

My inbox is becoming so inundated with e-mail, I’m missing the really important messages I WANT to read and I’m spending over 2 hours a day wading through messages and not having the time I need to read those publications I really want to follow.

If that’s true for The Sourcerer, I’m pretty certain others are experiencing the same problem. And that says nothing about the enormous number of e-mails that go directly to my SPAM and Junk Mail boxes.

Partially because I’m in the developmental stage of business with Talmax and partially because I’m still attempting to learn more and more about social media, I don’t really want to ignore a message if it might contain useful information.  And so, my Blog readers, I’m asking you for solutions that might help alleviate this problem.

Is social media interfering with your business?  If so, what are you doing about it?

It occurred to me that I might have led you astray. I recently wrote a blog on the use of Posting Pages to attract candidates by “selling the sizzle” about your company and the job you have available.

In the article, I plainly said that getting candidates to go to your career site was “not all that difficult”. A number of readers disagreed and said quite the opposite.  They found it very difficult to get qualified job seekers to go to their career sites.

Therefore, instead of following my plan and writing about candidate screening (and how it can save you lots of time while reducing your recruiting costs), I am going to discuss non-traditional ways to drive talented candidates to your career site. 

In a previous commentary, I gave you a long list of the more traditional methods of candidate sourcing from internal job postings to the use of third party recruiters. You can review that list by clicking on:

http://www.talmax.com/sixdos/

The purpose of the next few blogs is to give you a number of “non-traditional” ideas to attract the talent you want to hire. Each of these ideas requires a little thinking “outside-the-box”.

Leverage Relationships with your Vendors

Ask yourself if the candidates you want to respond to your job opening might now be working for a competitor. If so, who are the companies that sell to you and may sell to your competitors?  Chances are someone at one of those suppliers may know a potential candidate who matches your requirements.

Finding a list of these suppliers is simply a matter of reviewing your supplier list and using a little internet research to identify their competition. Once you have a number of companies who currently sell either to you or to your competitors, go to the website of each of these companies and look up the names and e-mail addresses of any of the sales people you can find.

Yes, this takes some time; however, if you are not getting the response to your job opening that you need, why not take the time to do a little investigation? You can either do this yourself or spend thousands of dollars having a third party recruiter do it for you.

Next, create an e-mail (I have included a sample for you) and send it to every sales person on the list you have created. Provide a description of your position (if you read my article on Posting Pages, you will know how important a well-crafted job description is when attempting to attract the right candidate). Ask each person you contact to forward your e-mail to anyone they know who may be qualified and interested.

This process is not hard to do and it can help you find referrals who are potentially great candidates for your job!  Will it work every time…No, but it is definitely worth trying anytime you cannot attract the talent you need.

I have included the following sample e-mail for your use:

Subject Line: Do you know anyone who may be interested in this job?

Dear #Contact Name#,

We are attempting to locate a suitable candidate to fill a key position with our company.  I believe you sell to our industry and I thought you might be aware of someone (perhaps a friend or business acquaintance) who might be both qualified and interested.

So that you can review the position in detail, click the link below or simply copy and paste the URL into your browser. 

Enter posting page URL here

 If you know of someone who might fit our need, please forward this e-mail to him/her for review.

We would be most appreciative of any help you can offer.

Regards,

Your Signature
Your Company

I’ll have more suggestions for you in my next blog.

Talmax has an announcement that will help you find qualified candidates faster and can truly lower your recruiting costs. 

Effective immediately when you use a Talmax Career Site to list your current openings, your jobs will not only automatically feed to Indeed and Simply Hired, they will now also feed to Facebook and Twitter allowing you recruiting access to both these very popular social media sites.

This new feature is convenient, it’s automatic and it’s included every time you list a new job on your career site.

Occasionally you receive a piece of information that just makes you feel good, about yourself or your company or in this case…both.

The following is a testimonial I received today that  I wanted to share because it made me feel good about the 4 years that went into creating a product called Talmax. The struggle was worth the result.

“As the Human Resources Manager for Niagara Thermal, my initial experience with Talmax was a little different.  I was a candidate, looking to relocate.  I found the job I currently hold on Indeed and in order to apply for the position, I had to go through the Talmax online application process.  I was very impressed.  It was very streamlined and allowed questions to be asked of me as an applicant that gave me insight into the company’s personality.

 Now that I am the HR Manager at Niagara Thermal, I regularly see how our Talmax Career Site and the Talmax candidate screening tools help us identify and screen people for jobs at all levels in our company.  I like Talmax because it works, it helps me lower our recruiting costs and it saves my staff a whole lot of time while increasing the efficiency of our operation. 

 If you have any specific questions about Talmax, just give me a call.  You can reach me at 716-297-0652 x242 during regular business hours (EST).”

John Grubb, Human Resources Manager, Niagara Thermal Products

If you want to attract the “right” candidates, you first need to consider your job through the eyes of the candidates you want to attract. Good candidates crave information. Great candidates make decisions about applying for a position based on the tried and true proposition of “WIIFME” (what’s in it for me).

What really interests the candidate?

• Highlights of the company’s history (brief, noteworthy pieces of data)
• Job requirements (the absolute, “MUST HAVE” requirements)
• Background/skill requirements (the “must have” only)
• Job/background preferences (it would be nice if the candidate also had…)
• Duties and responsibilities (how will the candidate will spend his/her time)
• Company “selling points” (why would a candidate want to work here)
• Job “selling points” (specifics about the “what’s in it for me”)
• Company benefits (extremely important to so many candidates)
• Relocation information (can be “broad-brushed” but candidates need some info)
• Travel requirements (how much, how often, where to)
• Compensation/bonus opportunity/overtime pay possibilities (if you can, this key component is very beneficial to include)
• Testimonials from co-workers (tidbits from satisfied, enthusiastic employees are very appealing to quality candidates)
• Information on the culture & working environment (what would you want to know about this category if you were a candidate)

 What is the best way to present this information?

• Use headlines on your job presentation to separate each category of information
• Make your headlines intriguing (for example, instead of “Company Selling Points”, call that section “Reasons why you might want to work here”)
• Use short sentences or bulleted points
• Keep your job presentation attractive but concise
• Present a picture of the company and the job that candidates can visualize
• Make an effort to tell your story in a compelling manner
• As a time saver, use a format that lets you re-use sections of your job presentation such as company history, reasons to work here, environment & culture, etc. in future job listings

Instead of requesting that the candidate e-mail his/her contact data and attach their resume, allow the candidate to apply on-line, directly from the job presentation page. Doing so encourages qualified people to apply immediately using a process that gives the company a more complete picture of each candidate and gives the candidate a positive impression of the company and of the company’s sourcing process.

To implement a sourcing system like this there are several components you should explore.

1. Flexibility – You want an automated sourcing system that allows you to define all the fields you want included on your Posting Page.  You also need to define the number of categories you want, as you will want to present certain jobs using a less comprehensive format with fewer categories while others will require a very comprehensive explanation with a lot of “sizzle”. In other words, the software must present a job the way a candidate wants to see it.
2. Ease of Use - You should be able to enter your own data without the need to involve technical support from your IT department or tech-support team. The software must be easy to understand and the navigation must be intuitive.
3. Information retention - You need to be able to re-use or change certain data in future job listings without technical support. You must be able to edit, save and archive information for future use.

 Attracting the quality of candidates your company needs and converting the best of those who apply into new employees starts here:

• Create a plan and make-up a schedule
• Select the sourcing tools that will drive candidates to your career site
• Set the bait and sell the “sizzle”

A reader recently wrote the following to The Sourcerer:

“I’m responsible for hiring and I’m finding that I am bombarded with stacks of resumes very few of which meet my hiring criteria. What can I do to attract better candidates who more closely match my needs?”

You know it is really easy to make mistakes when you are sourcing candidates…unless you begin the process prepared.  Attached is a brief guide for managers to help with your hiring process.

In summary, The Sourcerer recommends that you:

• Create a hiring plan that really works
• Prepare a compelling job description that will attract the talent you need
• Control your recruiting costs and maximize effective candidate sourcing

  This article will also offer solutions to the mistakes that lead to spending too much on your recruiting efforts and offer ways to avoid hiring the wrong person because you have attracted the wrong candidates.

 Click here to read more.

We’re looking for 100 companies that could benefit from a six month free use of a Talmax Career Site.

Today, The Sourcerer is celebrating.

We recently put the finishing touches on an update of our website and have completed a number of significant changes and upgrades to our Talmax Career Site SaaS software. 

We are enthusiastic about the results of these efforts because we listened, very carefully, to the users of our Career Site product. The changes we have completed make that product even easier to use and, we think, more effective for the user.

A Talmax Career Site and automated candidate screening tools can plug right into a company’s existing website. The Career Site becomes the primary vehicle a company can employ to attract and screen candidates for every type of job from blue-collar to high-level executive.

Now we would like to roll this new SaaS software product out to small to mid-sized companies for a final critique before we begin a massive marketing program.

That is where you come in.  We are looking for 100 companies that could benefit from a six-month free trial of a Talmax Career Site. 

The user gets to experience ALL the features and benefits of this “plug-in” career site for a full six months, including all the candidate-screening tools.  There is NO obligation to buy anything.  All we ask is that the user completes a brief survey at the end of the six months to let us know what he/she thought about the product. 

If you and/or someone you know want to particpate, full details can be found at:  www.talmax.com/nocharge  Simply click on the red starburst.  It’s just that easy.

The Sourcerer thanks you for giving Talmax a hand.

 The Sourcerer received the following inquiry last week…”We are having trouble attracting candidates to our company’s career site.  Can you help? ”        

 You bet!  To solve this problem you first need to take a hard look at your current career site. The purpose of a well-designed Career Site is to save your company money. The money you save comes from cutting your recruiting costs when you have open jobs to fill. To attract the quality and quantity of candidates you need you must have a career site that:

• Attracts the caliber of people you need to hire
• Provides the kind of information that candidates want to see
• Generates sufficient traffic to satisfy your sourcing needs

 A carefully crafted Career Site can attract high caliber talent while cutting your recruiting expenses by 50% or more. 

Read more…

Sick of your “normal” recruiting methods?  Tired of reviewing resumes from unqualified people who answer your ads or postings in droves, with no regard to whether or not their credentials match your need? Interested in saving your valuable time…and lowering your recruiting costs?

If this sounds like a pitch to buy a new service, it’s not.  It is simply an idea you might want to try.  It was done for a real company… and it worked!

An accounting firm needed to replace a key administrative person who had been with them for a very long time and was retiring.  They hired Talmax to find candidates.  We searched the databases of Monster and CareerBuilder for someone in their area with the background they wanted.  Talmax found about 100 or so “run-of-the-mill” possibilities, but no one really special.

Because the type of person we needed could come from a lead adinistrative job in a law firm, we searched the local member ALA site for potential candidates. That’s when the light bulb went off. 

The site contained a rather long list of vendors who were sponsors of various local ALA activities and who regularly called on all the member firms in the organization. We sent an e-mail to the contact at each of these vendor companies asking for referrals.  We included a link to a Posting Page, which contained a detailed description of the job that they could forward to anyone they felt would be qualified and interested.

We received eight referrals, all of high quality including the person who was ultimately offered and accepted the position.

How’s that for “out-of-the-box” recruiting? 

Got a recruitment story of your own?  Send it to The Sourcerer so we can share it with other interested parties.