2011 Best Recruiters Announced

At 2011 Cleared Job Fairs® security-cleared job seekers vote for the best recruiting experience provided by the defense and government contractor employers in attendance. The top three companies at each event are recognized as Best Recruiters.

“The Best Recruiter program has become an important part of the security cleared community. The recruiters and their supervisors realize that the competition for top security cleared talent is fierce. It is important to establish not only a good relationship with professional candidates, but to present the company’s employment brand in the best light,” says Kathleen Smith, CMO, ClearedJobs.Net.

The job seeker experience is an important part of a company’s talent acquisition strategy, so many of the companies exhibiting at Cleared Job Fairs take the Best Recruiter competition very seriously. Many of the recruiting teams who don’t win, evaluate what they can do better. Supervisors sometimes award bonuses to teams who do win, and many recruiters list the award Best Recruiter on their resume or LinkedIn profile.

Smith adds, “The search for the perfect candidate and the perfect job can be a trying experience for both parties. By making this a positive experience, everyone wins. The recruiters recognized as ‘best’ are those who put recruiting and the candidates first – they are approachable and talk with every job seeker who comes to their booth. It is a privilege to have these Best Recruiters at our Cleared Job Fairs.”

This year’s Best Recruiters are from the following companies:

BAE Systems

CACI

Cape Fox Professional Services

General Dynamics IT

Hazard Management Solutions

L-3 Communications GS&ES

L-3 Communications STRATIS

Lockheed Martin

MetroStar Systems

Northrop Grumman IS

Raytheon IIS

SERCO

The full list of Best Recruiters is listed on the Best Recruiter Wall of Fame.

Annual Best Recruiter Breakfast

The Best Recruiters of 2011 will be celebrated at a special invitation-only breakfast event October 5, at the Capital Club in the Sheraton Premiere Tysons Corner. This year’s keynote speaker will be Kelly Dingee – a Washington, DC, area sourcing, recruiting and social media superstar.

Dingee is the Strategic Recruiting Manager and Research Team Lead at Staffing Advisors. She is also a regularly featured writer on the talent management blog Fistful of Talent and is sought out by publications such as “Workforce Management,” and “Mashable.com.” Dingee’s experience includes contract sourcing and corporate HR roles, as well as working for AIRS as a Technical Writer/Course Developer collaborating with the training team on courses such as SearchLab, ExtremeLab, Certified Diversity Recruiter, and her personal favorite, Certified Social Sourcing Recruiter. Her passion for social media is so great that she volunteers with The Realtime Report, providing Twitter coverage of their live events. Dingee has presented and moderated panels at industry events including recruitDC, MCSHRM, HRA-NCA, Project SAME, HCI, and ERE’s Social Recruiting Summit.

“Kelly is passionate about sourcing, recruiting and social media – all the tools our Best Recruiters use. She is also passionate about the way candidates are treated throughout the talent acquisition process. We are very pleased that Kelly will be joining us to celebrate these recruiters and their efforts” adds Smith

Comment by Valentino Martinez on September 14, 2011 at 5:56pm: As a seasoned Job Fair recruiter of security cleared candidates--it's good to hear that the "ClearedJobFairs.net" entity allows for and promotes a quality assessment of the participating recruitment teams. It helps raise the bar for all participating employers to remember that they too are being evaluated by targeted candidates in attendance.

However, what seems to be missing with such an announcement of: “Best Recruiters of 2011” is no mention of actual recruitment results experienced at the job fairs. Yes, I understand this is purely focused on recognizing recruitment teams who participated and impressed job seekers attending the Cleared Job Fairs—but where is the beef?

Employers go to job fairs to recruit. Making a PR splash is a bonus but if I reported to my boss about how the job seekers loved our team at the job fair—the first response would be: “Who and how many candidates are we pursuing for site interviews?” Or, “How many contingent job offers were extended?” In my mind answering those questions more define what a “best” recruiter, or best recruitment team impact is than just the job seekers' good impression and praise for us.

While I'll take and value such praise if it's earned--I'll be more focused on the actual recruitment results. Good recruitment results bring in the talent that contributes to the bottom line and pays the rent--everybody benefits.