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?

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

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.

The owner of a mid-sized marketing company recently asked if I thought posting jobs on major job boards like Monster or CareerBuilder had become a waste of time and money.  His e-mail said: “With so many people unemployed right now, I’m afraid I’m going to get inundated with unwanted and unqualified resumes if I post an opening on one of these gigantic job boards” Do I agree?

 The Sorcerer’s answer: No and here is why…

 Media guru and recruitment consultant, John Zappe, recently quoted job posting distributor, eQuest, who said that CareerBuilder and Monster are still the most requested sites for advertising job openings. Companies looking for people use these sites because that is where the vast majority of job seekers register.

Even though a candidate may sign-up on specialized and/or local job boards, that same candidate will register with one or more of the major Job Boards to be certain that he/she has the maximum amount of exposure to potential employers.

 That means that candidates, both talented and not so talented, will respond to an appealing job posting, often in significant numbers.  Recruiters, Hiring Managers and HR professionals learn to dread the affliction known as “resume fatigue” when it becomes necessary to review a large number of candidate resumes for an open position.

 Is there a solution for “resume fatigue”? 

You bet, it’s called Talmax.  Check it out!

Did you know that referred individuals who become employees…

• Stay at your company longer
• Are less expensive to recruit
• Are often more qualified
• Adapt to your company culture more easily

 To implement a referral program many companies offer a bounty to encourage existing employees to refer friends and acquaintances for job openings. The bounty can be in the form of a cash payment, merchandise, extra time off or some other incentive.

 There are numerous cases, however, when a company’s ERP (Employee Referral Program), just doesn’t work well. This often happen when the program is not sufficiently promoted by the company or there is a lack of communication about the program within the company. One of the keys to a successful referral program requires the company to follow-up with any employee concerning the status of any person that employee referred…not doing so may insure that the employee  might never make another referral. Lack of communication from the company can easily lead to a “Why bother?” attitude from the employee.

 From the employer’s perspective, effective referral programs must track costs like bonuses paid and promotion expenses incurred for a specific campaign. Surveys should be conducted periodically to check employee satisfaction with the referral program and to ask for input to improve the program. Management should also track the success rates and number of hires that are made using the referral program during specific periods.

 According to a recent study by CareerXroads, employee referrals on a national basis account for 28.5% of all external hires. That’s a statistic to really consider if you want to increase your success in recruiting and lower your recruiting costs.

 To improve or maximize the effectiveness of an ERP, it’s important to set measurable goals.  Goals like ”increasing the percentage of hires from employee referrals from 15% to 20% over the next 12 months”. You will also want to measure how the return on your investment in a referral  program compares with the results of other recruitment options you use.

 In addition, for ease of use and consistency, automate as much of your ERP as possible and continue to promote the program through e-mails, newsletters and employee rewards. 

 Finally, a secondary source for referrals that is both effective and increasingly popular is social and professional networking using sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Plaxo and Twitter for recruiting.  Social networking enables candidates to network their way into target companies on the strength of their existing business or personal relationships. It also allows employers to identify passive candidates they might otherwise not find.  

Pros of Referral Programs

• Typically low cost depending on the size of the bounty, especially if used prior to using more traditional recruiting tools such as classified advertising, job board postings, or third-party recruiters.
•  Sometime this “birds of a feather” theory yields great candidates. The theory is based on the assumption that great employees tend to associate with or know of other people with similar traits.

 Cons of Referral Programs

• There can be problems if a referred candidate is hired and doesn’t work out or isn’t happy in the job. This situation can cause problems for the employee who referred the candidate and sometimes necessitates the employer implement an immediate solution in what could be a delicate situation.
• There can also be problems when a referred candidate is not hired, potentially causing embarrassment for the person doing the referring and reluctance to offer additional referrals in the future.
•  Often employees can be reluctant to proactively solicit referrals even when a bounty is involved.
•  Promoting an internal bounty program can be costly in terms of time investment and out of pocket expense. In addition, an Employee Referral Program generates extra administrative reporting that needs to be managed.

 Tips

• If you start an Employee Referral Program you may want to initiate your program using smaller referral bonuses to keep costs down.  You can differentiate the bonus amounts you offer as your need determines. When you launch your program, provide your employees with a written explanation including the fact that the incentives may increase or decrease based upon market conditions for sourcing specific skills. In other words, you may pay a bigger bounty to find a referral with a scarce skill and less to fill positions requiring more commonly available skill sets.
• Create a form that your employees can submit when they refer candidates. Date and time stamp this form to validate the referral when it’s time to pay the bonus.
•  Track every referral transactions carefully.
•  Decide if you want to build in a waiting period, perhaps 30 to 90 days, after the referred employee begins work, before you pay the bonus; rather than pay the bonus as soon as the referred employee starts the new job.

Putting an Employee Referral Program together takes time and no small amount of effort, but The Sourcerer knows that a program like this can be a great way to hire!

The head of a small insurance firm recently received this e-mail from a recruited candidate: “Thank you for considering me for the Executive Director position.  While I believe I have the background in administrative and facility areas, unfortunately I do not believe I have the level of financial background that the position requires.  In the event that other positions become available, please do not hesitate to contact me again, since I would be most interested in pursuing employment with your firm, based on the detail about your company included in the Job Listing.”

The Sourcerer’s creative recruiting tip for today: When recruiting, make it a point to “sell” the reasons why qualified candidates should be interested in your company. Fortune 1000 companies regularly do this with every job opening.  On their career sites and in their job descriptions, they provide information designed to appeal to the best talent available…and that appeal does not have to tie exclusively to compensation. Sure a compensation package is important to any talented candidate; however, there are other elements of the position and other information about a prospective employer that are every bit as critical.

Quality candidates want to know about the work environment, about their co-workers and the attitude their fellow employees have about the company. Candidates want to hear about the “social” side of your workplace including things like company events and the organization’s participation in charitable activities.  Top talent needs to understand the potential career path this position could take including the advancement possibilities and the degree of responsibility they will have in the position and in the company. The appealing picture you “paint” of your company and the people who work there can go a long way in attracting and landing the best available candidates. You need to provide this information as part of your Job Listing when you are looking for the best people you can find.

I have included a link to a Posting Page that contains a sample Job Listing to show you how easy it is to create an effective presentation that sells the job and your company.

View a sample Posting Page

Today’s high unemployment numbers do not preclude your need to provide these “selling points” in your recruitment advertising if you really want to source exceptional people. Even if a top quality candidate is not interested in or not qualified for a currently open position, he/she will return to your website to review future opportunities if they find your company an attractive place to work.  You can build that perception.  In recruiting, if you “sell”, they will come.