ChumBonus: Who Do You Know?

Buried in tweets, emails, LinkedIn messages and status updates in Facebook, it is sometimes hard to be objective about the impact Social Media Recruiting (SMR) will have on the recruiting industry and how recruiters will be successful in the future, meaning now.

Is the huge buzz being generated about SMR true and will it change the way candidates are indentified and if so will this leave “old school” recruiters in a pool of Facebook generated dust? The answers are “yes”, “yes” and “no.”

There is no doubt that we are more connected to more people today then any other time in history. The internet is ripe with facts about the growth of Twitter, et al and as a recruiter you cannot ignore those connections and must adapt your model to remain competitive. By ignoring SMR, you are not casting your net as far and wide as you should. However, once that net is in the boat, the recruiter’s job is to find the best fish, not just any fish and this is where “old school” recruiting skills come into play.

Once that fish is in the boat, the ability to ask open questions, probe for flags and develop a feeling about a candidate separates the Recruiters from the paper pushers. Recruiting is about developing a connection with a candidate as well as mutual respect and trust. You can’t tweet that. Recruiters ferret out the things that make candidates tick and by doing so present the candidate in a light that goes far beyond what the resume shows.

Therefore to be a successful Recruiter today you have to combine the old and the new. The Recruiter will need an extensive network spread across multiple internet and non-internet venues. They will have spoken relationships (remember that phone thingy on your desk?) with a significant number of people in their network and they will meet new people at networking events, cocktail parties, ball games and in church parking lots. The objective is to have as many people in your modern day Rolodex as possible so that when you need a candidate, you tap your network and not the big job boards where the bottom feeders congregate.

Here are eight tips for recruiters to be successful in today’s recruiting environment.

1. Develop live relationships with the people you are recruiting or networking with. Make every third interaction a phone call
2. If you are not on the Social Media sites, get on them now. Don’t be consumed by them, but spend enough time each day so that you are continually seeing your presence there expand
3. Mine your applicant tracking system. I guarantee there is a goldmine of relationships in there just waiting to be tapped
4. Track your source of hires. Knowing where you are having successes and failures will allow you to tweak your approach
5. Reward those in your network that have helped you. A quick thank you call or email or a gift card are all that is necessary typically
6. Once you identify a strong potential candidate, work hard to develop a rapport that only face to face conversations and phone calls can achieve
7. Make no assumptions. Do you know their salary and benefit desires, their vacation plans, why they are looking for a new job, how serious they are about making a change, what they are looking for in a new job and why they will be successful at your company. If the answers to any of these is “no”, get back on the phone.
8. Tell the truth. If a candidate does not get the job, tell them why. The respect you gain will plant them firmly in your network. They may know the person you want to hire.