The world of talent acquisition is changing fast. People expect to be treated in a different way now and all this means recruiters need to develop new skills and ways of recruiting.

Companies like Indeed have woken up the world of jobs and recruitment in good and bad ways. Before large aggregator job boards arrived, candidates often had to research where they would find job adverts. As these adverts were not so readily available and the Apply technology was not so advanced, candidates had to put effort into applying.

Now that you can find a job through a simple google search and apply for it with just a couple of clicks using your Indeed CV or LinkedIn profile, things are too easy. So easy that job searchers often apply for jobs on bulk, paying little attention to the employer or sometimes the seniority of the position. Recruiters now face the challenge of potentially 100's/1000's of applications per day and very little commitment, or thought has been put into applying.

The dormant database

The age old claim of success a recruiter, agency or in-house function would make is that "we have x,000's of CV's in our database". This number is used to declare how spectacular they are at their job and why they are best placed to deliver services. Again, the world of jobs and recruitment has changed. It is now so easy to apply for jobs that it is equally easy to forget what you have applied to. This lack of commitment means candidates are often applying to jobs, rather than careers.

Databases that hold vast quantities of candidates who are not engaged by the perspective employer, attract candidates for jobs. By engaging candidates with your brand, values, culture and success stories, you will start to receive candidates for careers.

The hidden gem

So often I hear recruiters voicing dissatisfaction at the number of applications and the poor quality they receive. Firstly, let's face it, it's our job! But our job has changed - has the way we deal with these applications? Unfortunately, in most cases, it hasnt.

So how can we change this? We can look at all these applications as a blessing. Only a small number of the applicants we receive are so far removed from what we need, that there is no potential for the future. Most companies will see a large number of applications from candidates who are not experienced enough or do not yet have the correct qualifications. The blessing here is, in a short while, they will have everything you need! The only challenge is how do you keep and use these applications in the future?

Engagement is king

The crux of every well-planned recruitment strategy is engagement. The applications you use today can become your new hires in months or even years from now. In fact, these candidates will become career candidates in the future as they will be engaged by your brand etc. and will be bought into your opportunities. So what are you waiting for?

Author

Iain Hamilton 

I have had the privilege of gaining a diverse array of experience in both in-house FTSE100 and recruitment agency style positions. More recently I launched People Traction. Check out our services here.

Throughout my career, I have been passionate about providing a seamless and enjoyable application process and have lead projects to design company websites, careers sites and job boards.

I have been instrumental in creating and delivering global proactive recruitment strategies and training recruitment teams in how to pro-actively resource passive and active talent. The results of delivering a pro-active recruitment strategy have shown a significant reduction in time to fill, improved candidate quality and significant cost savings.

www.peopletraction.co.uk