Saturday, March 08, 2008

Out-of-the-Box On-Line Recruiting

When most people think of recruiting on the web, they are talking about running ads on job boards. You know those dry job specification advertisements that demand 325 different skills and experiences and do nothing to describe the ojb or how wonderful the employer is to work for.

Yet the public statistics on the source of new hires is says that recruiting on job boards fills an extraordinarily small number of positions (I think the figures in these surveys are extremely low; after all, employment agencies are listed as a separate category and many of them find their candidates from job boards. Why shouldn't many of the jobs credited to agencies be attributed to job boards?)

Part of successful marketing in the employment field is creating an online persona for your firm--an online brand--that is attractive and makes the right people favorably disposed to joining your company before they walk in the door.

After all, when I say "Google," you have an impression and, statistically, speaking the impression is extremely favorable. When I say, "Ox and Ox" (a name I've made up; if there is a business by this name, I did not find it in the first few pages of Google searches), you have no impression or are somewhat quizzical.

For many of you, your recruiting brand is slightly above Ox and Ox.

Here are a few ideas to improve it dramatically--not instantly but over time.

Write your job ads with the employee in mind, too. Why should they join your company? What's in it for them? And don't write dry copy. Make it friendly and warm.

Develop short videos for YouTube and your company's website. There was quite a bit of buzz about some online ads that Sony Ericcson developed last year that highlighted their work space, information about their US headquarters environment and much more.

Develop an interesting looking career site presence for your website. Most are extremely boring. Take a look at some of the jobs developed on the site www.standoutjobs.com. The page is interesting and leaps out at you. I'm not endorsing the servie; just the look and organization of the pages. Which brings me to

Blogging about your company. Why aren't the top people in your firm taking two minutes with twitter and blogging bout your company. Why don;t you have the CFO, COO, CTO and Director of HR, Head of Engineering, blogging about working at your company? Which brings us to

Develop an online presence. Why aren't all them on Facebook, myspace, LinkedIn, Xing and others developing an online persona for your firm to attract talent.

Google for candidate leads. I developed Search4Candidates.com to simplify recruiting for passive job applicants. You enter a typical Google search into the search field and then narrow the search by clicking on LinkedIn or Xing or other services to turn up leads of passive candidates to recruit. The service is completely free.

Make finding the Career Page on your website easier. Too often, finding the career pages requires going down two or three levels on a drop down menu. It's stupid! Just put a button on your home page and every other page of your site that says, "We're hiring!" When they click it, the person is brought to the search page.

Use pop-unders like Internet marketers do. When people are about to leave your site, have a pop-under that says something like "Wait! before You Go! We're hiring! Want to search some our job listings?

There are a lot of things that you can do to incorporate online recruiting into your repertoire. Take the time and make the effort.


Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
 Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com
© 2008 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a retired certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

He is the author of “Get Yourself Hired NOW! The Big Game Hunter’s Guide to Head Hunting Your Next Job and Every Job After That” (in ebook and audio formats) and “Get Your Job Search Organized NOW!” (ebook) Both are available at www.getyourselfhiredNOW.com Register at the site and you will receive free copies of The International Job Board List and a Guide to Resume Writing.

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