InMails are expensive but quite useful.  If you take your time to devise  compelling text for your inmail, you will reap the benefits.  While each person won't be a slam dunk for the position at hand, you will have impressed them with your style enough to rise above the recruiter fray.  

1. The Subject:

I often spend the most time on this part.  It should clearly convey the reason for the message.  It should be catchy but not salesy.  It should be complimentary…

Many studies have identified the power of saying ‘thank you.’  When you say ‘thank you’ your customers they spend more, they return less, they tell their friends about you and your service delivery.  In the workplace employee productivity increases when a sign of appreciation is shown such as ‘thank you.’  Likewise vendors go the extra mile, provide deeper discounts, extend credit, deliver on time and increase consideration.  This drives profit, margin and success.

If this is the case…

Using 5W&H is the key to everything

The 5W&H stands for; who, what, when, where, how and why. If we are doing things right these 6 words are always used, will always provide the information and answers we need and are the key to success.

For example doing research prior to sourcing. When doing this research you should, as a minimum be asking the following…

Here is my new dilemma so to speak.  I am helping a law firm locate a candidate in IP with an undergrad in chemical engineering.  The job order said 1 to 5 years.  I talk to a great candidate with the required under grad.  It would be a relocation for him but he seems interested.  I ask him what his salary range is.  After hanging up with him I call the client  and leave a message for the recruiting coordinator with my presentation and salary range.  I get an email back saying that range is…

I just watched the HBO documentary Hard Times Lost on Long Island.  This was a 1-hour documentary profiling a few unemployed individuals living on Long Island and I highly recommend everyone watch it.  It should be required watching for anyone working in HR.  I watch movies to escape.  I want to watch movies so I don’t have to think about the real world, but…

I was conducting some research for a client and I found the following survey results on an the client's industry's trade publication:

SURVEY QUESTION: How do you recruit technicians?

• Newspaper advertising  17.65%  
• Technical or trade schools  23.53%  
• Employment office advertising  23.53%  
• Internal promotions  0%  
• Word of mouth  35.29%

It lingered with me for awhile after reading the results.…

Here is our weekly feature in which we share the top…

Your job title says a lot about you, whether you want it to or not. It's shorthand for what you do and where you fit into an organization. It's also inherently meaningless, since no two companies are identical and nobody has to sign an affidavit before they declare themselves the Vice President of something. There's no solution to this (and I'm not sure it's a problem, per se) short of standardizing job titles across the board, but it did get me thinking about the two fundamental components…

(Reposted from Make HR Happen July 11, 2012)

I should be ashamed of myself. My kids actually believed that I had a pocketful of invisible nose magnets. Every time, without fail, when I would put my hand into my pocket and then extend my hand with the thumb and two…

We already know that social media plays a huge role in hiring.

And with a Facebook job board reportedly in the works, it could become even easier for companies to match up with better candidates.

As companies become more…

Yesterday, I received an email from a candidate that I placed one year ago with a long-standing client. This candidate, let’s call him Ray, phoned our office and he was transferred to me because of it’s “uniqueness” (I get all of the “unique” calls).

Anyway, back to Ray. He told me that he called every employment agency in town and has interviewed with a few but has…

By Dan Ridge, Senior Contributing Consultant, Q4B

Ask any successful business leader who is their customer and you are likely to get a pretty detailed answer. Some could provide you with demographics and statistics on age, gender, education, income level and buying habits. Others might base their answer on type of product or service offered and their specific market’s competitive landscape. Still others could offer a price breakdown comparison within certain product or service…

The evolution of the Career Site has occurred rapidly over the last decade.  Career Sites are no longer (or should no longer) be static job pages linked together by a single homepage but really act as your recruiting hub for engaging and interfacing with candidates about your company and employment opportunities.

Candidates no longer just want a job search for open positions (although that’s a necessity) but they want to learn about your company and culture so they can make an…

(Reposted from Make HR Happen 7/9/2012)

There is a lot of talk about how to make effective staffing…

Dear Hiring Manager,

So, just to make sure I clearly understand you.

You consistently…

Looks like Facebook is working on a Job Board or is it?

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Facebook Inc. (FB) is planning to launch its own job board later this summer, said people familiar with the matter. The board will aggregate the job postings of third-party providers, making them available for search by Facebook users.

  While these knowledgeable people said the new effort doesn't yet signal that Facebook is making a full-blown…

I’m sure that there are many ways to mess up an interview and not turning up would probably be high on the list but recent experience would point to some not quite so obvious ways:

Not answering the question put to you would be high on my list. If you don’t have the exact background required and maybe your experience is from a different sector, in my opinion, it is perfectly alright to respond to a question with a answer that begins something like; “Well, I don’t have any direct…

I was able to chat with Kred's CEO Andrew Grill about how the site works, what their plans for the future entail, and what his thoughts are on using the site to find candidates.

Kred has the potential to be a very powerful way to source passive candidates. As a sourcer, you can search through the Kred "communities" to find people that are influential about topics that…

So you did everything right so far – showed up on time, dressed appropriately, researched the company and gave all the correct answers. Now it is time to turn the tables. A lot of candidates aren’t prepared, when asked, “Do you have any questions?” I have heard answers ranging from, “Not really” to “What is your vacation policy?” or “what is your background check policy?” – none of which help your candidacy. So how do your prepare a good list of interview…

Recruiting as an industry is notoriously behind the times when it comes to leveraging social media for their business.

With millions of potential jobseekers on social media sites, social recruiting is a no-brainer for any headhunter or Talent Acquisition pro. Something I always found interesting, as a marketing person, is the fact that recruiting blogs seem to talk ad nauseam about…