Big 3 Recruiting Mistakes

Even in this market some operations are having a hard time attracting talent. If this is you I am going to share with you the Big 3 reasons why you might not be attracting the talent you are hoping for.

Now I must warn you, these might not be easy to read and your first reaction might be to dismiss them. Don’t! If you can be honest with yourself about your business and procedures, be accountable to your business and be brave enough to make changes these can have a real and measurable impact.

Deep breathe… and here we go.

#1 Over-Advertising or Advertising in the Wrong Places

Over-advertising – have you ever visited a job board and noticed that one company has just posted 20, 30 or 50 jobs. Believe it or not some companies consider this an effective strategy and it is – if you do it once. But then they do it again and again and each time they do it fewer people apply until the 50 jobs they have posted attract virtually no suitable resumes.

Here are some facts for you – 19% of Exec & Managers in our industry are more likely to apply to jobs when they are advertised in this fashion. Yep a whopping 19% think that this is acceptable. Would you purposely eliminate 81% of your candidate pool?

Posting your job on every job board (paid and free) has the same effect. I often hear from candidates “they must be having a hard time finding someone; I have seen that job advertised everywhere.”

The perception in the market is that you can not find people and that discourages others from applying. Exposure is good, over exposure – bad.

Which leads to Advertising in the Wrong Places. If you are advertising for a high level employee, putting your ad on Kijiji might be sending the wrong message. Use the right resources for the position you are looking to fill.

#2 Compensation Package

Yes, even in this market people know what they are worth. People that are taking low salaries now will be the first out there looking as the market recovers. You haven’t hired a dedicated employee; you have hired and trained a temp.

Even though employment is down, salaries are up. People who are experienced, talented and get results know their value and will not apply for a job that offer a compensation package that does not offer them what they feel they are worth.

Today’s employee understands what they are worth and they will search until they find an employer who will reward them for their experience even if they are working for you now.

If you have used the past year to bargain hunt and build a team you might find yourself in a tough position once the markets start to recover as all of your temps go out to find better opportunities.

#3 Reputation

If no one is applying, if your current employees are not referring their friends and colleagues you might have a bad reputation in the market place. People talk, especially hospitality people. They know who the good employers are and who to stay away from; they know where they will get treated fairly and where people enjoy their jobs.

Check the temperature of your operation. How many referrals have you had in the past year? Some companies offer $ for referrals and still do not get any, what does that say abut your culture and reputation.

If you have a bad reputation here is something to consider. 34% of Execs and Managers find their job through their network, by talking to other industry people. That is the single most effective way to find talent. By comparison 27% find their job through job boards. If your work of mouth is not positive you are missing out on that 34% of cost free recruiting.

Take the time as assess how you recruit, what you offer and how your company is viewed. If you can be honest about what is really going on it can be the difference between great talent and poor talent. Which in turn is the difference between success and, well you know the rest.

One final point. There are companies out there that do not need to look outside of their business for talent. But when they do advertise a position, people “line up” to apply. You know who these companies are and I don’t think you can argue that these companies have a great reputation, pay fairly and do not over advertise

Comment by Alasdair Murray on January 18, 2010 at 1:17pm: I would add a fourth point. The point of advertising is to entice and provoke a response, even from the casual browser who is just surveying the marketplace. Cut and pasting a job description and person spec does absolutely nothing to turn on the reader. In fact it encourages the old adage of only having a few seconds to capture the audience's attention. A lot of recruiters seem to th9ink that you can throw any old bread on the water in order to get a bite. The fact is you can't.Scratch your head all you like when you wonder why you got such a poor response from your last job post but the answer is right in front of your eyes. Look around you at billboards, tv, magazines. Listen to radio ads. What do they have in common? They try to have some kind of allure to them, some excitement. Something to interest the potential customer. Conversely, look at a bunch of job board ads - maybe your own. I've seen dead sheep with more going for them! Find some USPs, sell the company and the role, reach out to the potential applicant with your copy and you will get more of the right kind of response. Carry on banging out tired and lifeless copy on job boards though and you will continue to scratch your head and cry 'job boards are dead'. They aren't, but some of the content - i.e. a lot of recruiters job board copy, is.

Comment by Corey Harlock on January 18, 2010 at 1:59pm: Great point, thank you for that. You are right, it is important ot know what people look at in a job ad. I conducted a survey of exec's and managers in hospitality regarding the advertising and hiring process andwhat the applicants expectations are along with what thier reactions are to a company that does not meet thier expectations.

Anyway here are some of the results:
56% look at JOb description first
56% would apply to a company they had not previously considered because of a well designed ad.
86% of exec's and managers look at job boards even when they are happily employed
76% of happily employed people would be enticed to apply to a new job based on a better position/advancement opportunity.

Comment by Jason Monastra on January 19, 2010 at 11:56am: I agree with all the above points. Since we are an integrator and outsourcer, we have our professionals sell the client story. History and intimacy of the client environment bring credibility to your posting. It looks different and lets people know that you are not simply slapping some words on a board. It shows real involvement, skin in the game, and makes you appear as a value added partner and insider to the company.
I know this might be difficult for contingent searchs and such. But applicants do not want a go-between, they want someone that knows the environment, the people, quirks about the manager, etc. All of these help distinguish your company, you and the job from the flood of information out there.

Comment by Dave Hitchman on January 20, 2010 at 2:43pm: Don't forget reputation can be created by people outside your company. There are a number of companies which I know and won't apply again to. The reasons are a variety:
GE - they've been advertising a job for over 3 months, I know of 4 other candidates also very strong who have been told 'we have found someone stronger', GE are still advertising through numerous agencies for the job, clearly they aren't ever going to employ anyone.
Thomson - dragged me from Germany to the UK 4 times in total, first for a job that hadn't been signed off, the next 3 for its rerun which suddenly disappeared from the radar to the extent I never did get told I hadn't got it. Manners like that are beneath contempt.
Synchronica - similarly didn't tell me the outcome... it doesn't take long to send a dear John email, and if I have spent several hundred pounds of my money, and several days of my time preparing for and attending interviews (complete with presentations to make) the 1 minute to send me an email saying 'no, you are far too ugly' is really the least that can be expected.
Cambridge Consultants, I don't have a Cambridge first so regardless of 25 years of experience they don't want to know. Bully for them but I won't waste any more effort.
NHS, Defence, Teaching, UK government in general - a global problem, first they can't read a CV and insist on me cutting and pasting some of the useful info into a 'form' but worse, if you haven't already screwed up one of their projects they don't want you again. There is a massive list of NHS, defence and government contracts that have gone really badly, a tiny list of those that went ok, yet no one without the 'relevant' experience is able to get an interview. Even teaching is not exempt - apparently there is a shortage of science teachers, yet a qualified science teacher (me) can't get an interview because I am not already a teacher, therefore I must be a pervert wanting to prey on children and must be kept away from them at all costs (even to the extent of using PE teachers to teach science because they can have references from their existing head teacher so can be trusted) - if you don't believe that last one I do have the email confirming that as I can't supply a teaching reference I can't be considered for a teaching post.

The main problem today is that companies think they can offer peanuts and treat us all with rudeness and contempt. This will turn round and bite them in the arse when the market improves, they will be saddled with the hopeless cases that can get work no where else at all, and miss out on the people that can do the job and are snapped up elsewhere.