Traffic Jam of Resumes

Are you a hiring authority with open jobs, yet are not seeing the right “traffic” of candidates? If so, you are not alone. In fact, this is one of the biggest pain points hiring authorities express to me before hiring me. From their side of the highway, it’s a wide open road to their inbox… so where’s the log jam?

Here are a few reasons:

Supply and Demand:

This is still a candidate driven market, with less available talent than there are job opportunities. Simply put: there just aren’t enough qualified “A” players to meet the demand. Is it difficult to find a warm body?… NOPE. But, that’s not what you are looking for. And chances are that your competitors are also looking for the same talent. TIP: It’s best for you to have a “bride” and a “bridesmaid” in your queue that you can pull the trigger on, as you won’t always land your first choice.

Retention:

More than ever, companies are doing creative things to keep their employees happy, satisfied, and challenged-making it difficult to pull them away from their jobs. I’m getting more “I’m really happy where I am, thank you for your call” responses than ever! TIP: Think of creative things you can offer a candidate outside of salary. Money is just one part of the decision. Separate yourselves from other companies by offering other incentives, and you can battle for those candidates who currently have a pretty good situation.

Internal Referrals:

If you are trying to fill your job through your network, you are severely limiting your pool of candidates. I used to see a lot of candidates make moves to follow their old bosses to their new companies. No longer the case. Candidates are much more in tune with evaluating an opportunity on their own merit, and in most cases if they are happy, they are not going to leave a great situation just because an old boss/colleague is telling them how great it is at the new place. A recruiting expert in your world will have access and knowledge about candidates confidentially looking to make a move, or are at least poking around.

Your Internal Recruiting Team:

Most of my clients actually have some level of an internal recruiting function. I am friends with many, and collaborate well with them. They can be a headhunter’s best ally. However, leaving the duties of filling your jobs solely to your internal recruiting staff is one reason for the log jam. An internal recruiter is a different job with a different skill set than a specialized headhunter. Most internal recruiters I know do more inbound recruiting, relying solely on ads/job boards and LinkedIn…

• Job Boards: If you are waiting for a top player to respond to an ad or post their resume on a job board, you will be waiting for a long time.
• LinkedIn? The average InMail response rate is about 17% for internal recruiters. Leaning on those odds is why you are receiving more messages from a foreign bank with exciting news that you have inherited millions from a very distant relative (of course, they just need 5K to process the transaction), than you are receiving qualified resumes!

Your Headhunter:

Have you enlisted the right Executive Search firm? Not often, but sometimes, I will call a company (prospect) that is in my space, and the first thing they ask is “What do you charge?”... If that is how your company is qualifying a potential partner that will be your lifeline to ‘A’ talent, then something is broken. I love it when someone qualifies me and asks about ME, MY FIRM, MY EXPERTISE, MY PROCESS, etc. Finding the right partner in an executive search firm is key to success. TIP: Look at the terms you agreed to. Did you beat down a recruiting firm so much that they agreed to an awful contract? Guess what?  Two days later they probably signed a better contract with another client, and put all of their efforts and resources on filling their jobs-not yours…That may be why you hear crickets from your inbox, instead of pings from your search firm, bringing you fresh, new targeted candidates!

If your jobs are urgent and having them open is costing your company customers and revenue, take a look back at the traffic jam and see where the problem is. In my expertise of placing technology sales/presales and marketing professionals, I go by the “4-8-2” Rule: with my skillset and expertise, I typically bring 4 to 8 targeted candidates to the table within 2 weeks.

Having the right Headhunter as your partner can make you feel like you are driving in the Diamond Carpool Lane, whizzing right past your competitors!