Hiring managers, candidates, and even HR pros would rather be sipping margaritas on the beach than stuck in a conference room. 

When key decision-makers are MIA, it’s no wonder hiring slows down. Imagine trying to schedule an interview when the boss is off on a two-week cruise—nightmare, right?

Impact on sales and executive recruitment

Sales and executive roles suffer the most during the summer slowdown. These high-stakes positions require quick decisions, and delays can result in missed opportunities. 

For instance, a delay in hiring a top sales candidate could lead to missed revenue, while postponing the recruitment of a crucial executive can derail strategic initiatives.

Strategies to overcome summer hiring challenges

Facing a summer hiring slump doesn’t mean you have to put your recruitment efforts on hold. From proactive recruitment tactics to leveraging technology and enhancing your employer brand, these strategies will help you navigate the seasonal slowdown and ensure your organization remains competitive. 

Let’s dive into the specific approaches that can turn summer hiring challenges into opportunities for growth.

Proactive recruitment

Don’t wait for the slump to strike—be proactive. Keep recruiting all year round. Build a talent pipeline so you’ve always got a pool of candidates ready to dive in. Think of it like keeping a backup supply of your favorite snacks; you’ll never run out when the craving hits. An ATS like Workable can help you keep tabs on potential hires, so they don’t slip through the cracks.

Flexible work arrangements

Flexibility is your friend. Offering remote work and flexible hours can make your company more attractive, especially in the summer. Candidates love the idea of working from anywhere—be it their cozy home office or a beachside café. Extended vacation policies? Even better. Show candidates that you care about work-life balance, and they’ll search for you.

Leveraging technology

Technology is a game-changer. AI-driven sourcing tools can help you find candidates faster than you can say “artificial intelligence.” And virtual interviews? A lifesaver. No more juggling schedules for in-person meetings—hop on a Zoom or a Google Meet call and get things moving. 

Targeted outreach

Hit up industry-specific job boards and professional associations to find your dream candidates. And don’t underestimate the power of networking events. Whether it’s an online webinar or an in-person conference, these gatherings are goldmines for connecting with passive candidates who aren’t actively job hunting but might be open to the right opportunity.

Pro tip: Utilize your ATS to find AI sourced passive candidates and get in touch with them. 

Enhanced employer branding

Your brand is your secret weapon. Promote your company culture and values on social media and through employee testimonials. Show the world why your company is the best place to work. Highlighting employee success stories and workplace achievements can attract top talent like bees to honey. Enhance your employer branding.

Internship and fellowship programs

Summer internships are a great way to build a future talent pool. Interns get valuable experience, and you get to test-drive potential full-time employees. 

Offer fellowships or short-term projects to attract skilled professionals who are looking for something flexible. It’s like having a try-before-you-buy option for hiring.

Collaborations with educational institutions

Partner up with universities and colleges for recruitment drives. Campus events are perfect for meeting fresh graduates who are eager to jumpstart their careers. Educational institutions are also great for promoting your internships and fellowship programs.

Impact of remote work

Remote work has been a game-changer. It widens your talent pool beyond geographical limitations. You can hire the best person for the job, no matter where they are. Plus, it’s a great way to boost diversity and inclusivity in your workforce.

Employee retention focus

Keeping your current employees happy is just as important as hiring new ones. Offer perks like flexible work arrangements, professional development opportunities, and recognition programs to keep your team engaged and satisfied. Happy employees are less likely to leave, boosting employee retention and reducing your need for constant hiring. They will also speak highly of you, attracting more candidates.

The summer hiring slump might feel like a bummer, but with the right strategies, you can turn it into an opportunity. Keep your recruitment efforts going year-round, leverage technology, and offer flexible work options to stay ahead. 

By maintaining a strong employer brand and tapping into various outreach channels, you’ll keep attracting and retaining top talent, no matter the season.

So, grab your sunscreen and get ready to tackle the summer hiring slump head-on. With these tips, you’ll not only survive the summer slowdown—you’ll thrive.

The post Beat the summer hiring slump with these steps appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Rapid scaling brings forward unique challenges, and as an evidence based organization, we wanted to make sure we were also using the best evidence based recruitment strategies to hire talented professionals, especially for critical senior roles to support our growth.  Utilizing archetypes in our process is the one of many tools we use in our recruitments to ensure this. 

Understanding archetypes in recruitment

Archetypes in recruitment are ideal candidate profiles – a blend of traits, skills, and experiences that we believe align closely with specific roles in our organization. 

These archetypes are more than just a list of qualifications; they are a holistic view of what an ideal candidate could look like, considering the nuances of our organizational culture and goals. 

They serve as a guide, a north star, for our recruitment efforts, ensuring we’re not just filling positions but advancing our mission with the right people. 

The archetype-based approach

Our archetype-based approach emerged from the need to navigate the complexities of hiring for an array of new positions. Previously, we often found ourselves sifting through a vast pool of candidates without a clear idea of who the ‘right’ candidate was. 

First, we identify the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) that align with the role. 

Second, we identify archetypes to align on the multiple types of ideal candidates we could hire for the role. This approach not only brings clarity to the recruitment process but also ensures we are consistent and fair in our evaluation.

For example, if we are hiring for a Program Director position, our KSAs for the role may include:

• People leader
• Building and maintaining global culture
• Strategic thinking
• Government & partner relationships
• Growth Mindset

Then we apply our archetype-based approach and identify that an ideal candidate:

1. Should have global experience; working with and across countries and in a matrix
2. Should have a balance between global heath, International development, and management consulting; prioritizing someone who has run large scale health programs
3. Has experience working at like-minded organizations that are ambitious, data-driven, and partner effectively with governments 
4. Has delivered results with a team of 100+ employees 
5. Can articulate their key achievements, and use data to highlight their results 

Lastly, we identify 3-5 ideal candidates on LinkedIn, in our talent pools, or silver medalists from previous recruitments that align with our archetype.

At this stage, the goal is not to have 3-5 candidates we can source; rather the goal is that everyone has a very clear picture of the varying types of candidates we could hire for the role. 

By defining archetypes, we’ve created a framework that allows us to identify and agree on the qualities we value most for each role, streamlining the recruitment process significantly.

Balancing growth, diversity, and a global reach

One of the key advantages of this approach is its support for our growth and global expansion.

Instead of only using KSAs to identify candidates, by aligning on various types of candidates we could hire for the role we can identify diverse candidates across different geographies, aligning with the various needs of our operations worldwide.

This method also aids in maintaining diversity, not just in terms of background and experience, but also in thought and approach, which is crucial for an organization like ours that thrives on innovation and creativity.

Aligning expectations with reality

A significant part of our recruitment process is calibration – aligning the expectations of our hiring managers with the realities of the talent market.

By creating prospective candidate tables and utilizing a clearly articulated rating system, internally we foster a mutual understanding of what is desirable and achievable in a candidate. 

This calibration isn’t solely about skills and experience; it’s also about finding the right fit for Evidence Action’s ethos and values.

Working with hiring managers

One of our biggest hurdles has been engaging with hiring managers, especially those who do not hire regularly. Their vision of an ‘ideal’ candidate doesn’t always align with what talent is available or realistic. 

We tackle this by educating our teams about the market and guiding them through the archetype process. 

It’s a collaborative effort where we ensure that their needs are met while also setting realistic expectations about candidate capabilities and availability.

Saving time in the recruitment process 

A pivotal aspect of our hiring strategy is in streamlining the recruitment process. By implementing the archetype system, we’ve managed to front-load much of the assessment work. 

This means we’re not scrambling during the later stages of hiring – a common issue in many organizations.

We’ve found that taking time to align on candidate profiles before posting a job advertisement saves us invaluable time and resources down the line.

 Taking time to align on candidate profiles before posting a job ad saves us invaluable time.

Our structure as a matrixed organization adds another layer of complexity to our recruitment process.

We often find ourselves working to balance the opinions and needs of multiple stakeholders in hiring decisions. 

The archetype approach assists in this by providing a common ground for discussions.

It helps us bring different stakeholders to alignment, ensuring that the final candidate is not just a fit for the role, but fits the diverse perspectives within our organization.

Technology and pool navigation

Technology plays a crucial role in our recruitment strategy. Tools like Workable and LinkedIn are integral to our process, from sourcing candidates to managing their profiles. 

These platforms allow us to efficiently navigate through large pools of potential hires and keep track of our ‘silver medalists’. 

This technological integration ensures our recruitment is not only efficient but also wide-reaching.

In conclusion, we’ve been able to grow rapidly while maintaining the quality and diversity of our team – a critical factor in our success. As we continue on this journey, we aim to refine our strategies, embrace new technologies, and remain adaptable to the ever-evolving landscape of talent acquisition.

Kali Bell is a mom of two boys and Associate Director, Talent Strategy at Evidence Action. With recruitment experience spanning the United States, the African continent, and more recently in India, Kali thrives in streamlining People operations with the goal of creating more time for managers to focus on increasing their impact. Her passion lies in creating efficient systems that enhance the recruitment process and empower teams to excel in their roles.

The post Evidence Action: utilizing archetypes in hiring for growth appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

What factors are important when choosing sourcing tools?

No one tool is perfect, so knowing what matters most to your talent sourcing strategy is essential. Prioritize all factors you care about. Here are four important ones:

• Price. Some companies are willing to pay extra to find the most powerful tool, while others prefer to keep a tight budget. But, in the end, it’s important to find a tool with a price that matches its usefulness to your business. Consider:
  • Negotiability. How much room for negotiation do you have? For example, ask senior leaders if they will approve a more expensive tool if you are determined it’s the best tool that can shape and improve your sourcing process.
  • Necessity. Consider whether your sourcing strategies require an expensive and multi-featured tool. Ask yourself whether you could use inexpensive or free tools to accomplish your goals.
• Type. Determine the type of tool you are looking for based on your sourcing challenges and strategies. For example:
  • If your recruiting team wants access to many candidate resumes, then a resume database would be a good choice.
  • If social media sourcing is a big part of your strategy, build a strong social media recruiting strategy. For more on how, read our FAQ guide.
  • If you’re looking to connect with qualified candidates in talent-strapped markets like tech, use tools like Hired and JamieAi.
  • If you’re considering reaching out to passive candidates and want access not just to resumes but deeper insight into candidates’ motivations and skills , consider People Search, a rounded sourcing tool that scours the web to find candidates’ resumes, online social and professional profiles and contact information.
• Functionality. The most important factor is what your tool can actually do. For example:
  • Do you want your tool to let you search for names, locations, industries and keywords? If you are used to crafting Boolean queries, it’d be helpful to have a tool that enables Boolean commands.
  • Search quality is important. If you get a free trial, search for people you know or with useful keywords (e.g. “Java” if you’re hiring Java developers often) to check whether the tool delivers. Test the tool many times throughout your trial to ensure it performs consistently.
  • Legal compliance. For example, if you want to source EU residents, you need to follow the guidelines of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Before you invest in a sourcing tool, ask the provider about any compliance problems that may occur.
• Customer support. Customer support is important for every service or tool you purchase. Without quick and competent customer support, you may end up losing time trying to understand the tool and finding workarounds to problems. Check to see if your preferred sourcing tool’s support staff provides:
  • Online resources. An informative and well-written support section can help you and your team resolve any quick issues with the tool.
  • Varied contact methods. How do you prefer to reach the support team? Consider how you can reach the support staff (e.g. by phone, live chat or email) and whether those methods suit your team.
  • Accessibility. Around-the-clock support is a huge advantage, particularly for remote teams. Find out if your preferred tool’s support team is available during the hours that your teams usually work.

How to evaluate talent sourcing tools

Decide how you will find and evaluate products. To ensure that recruitment tools will meet your needs, use these methods to understand your options:

• Search for lists of sourcing tools. If you are just beginning your search, evaluate a few tools initially to establish a point of reference and familiarize yourself with different types of online sourcing tools. Look for lists to get started.
• Ask for referrals. Your friends, colleagues or acquaintances may have some good tools in mind. Reach out to them in-person or ask open-ended questions on your social media profiles. When you receive some recommendations, begin your evaluation process.
• Check online reviews. Sites like Getapp and Software Advice have many product reviews and let you sort tools by criteria like industry and features. But remember: different people have different criteria and what works for one company may not work for yours. Check out the overall ratings but also be sure to read some reviews in full to learn what exactly each user likes or dislikes.
• Sign up for free trials. Take advantage of any free-trial options. Use trials to try out products firsthand and see if you like their interface and capabilities. Free trials also help you evaluate customer support services with real questions.
• Ask for a demo. If a tool doesn’t offer a free trial or if you’ve been intrigued by the trial and want to know more, ask for a demo. Salespeople will be able to show you the full range of features and also present the benefits of their tool. Here are some things to look for in a demo:
  • Ease of use. How many steps are actually involved in finding a candidate? Ask salespeople to walk you through a sourcing scenario.
  • Mobile capabilities. Recruiting on the go is a huge advantage and time-saver. Ask about any mobile apps or capabilities with your preferred software.
  • Pricing and other services. How is the pricing structure set up, and what other services might you get within the price point?

Sourcing is also about engaging candidates

Talent sourcing tools will help you find the right candidates. But what you do to contact them and build relationships is the next important step. To be able to engage passive candidates:

• Personalize your email templates. Sourcing email templates save you a lot of time but the most effective emails are personalized. Use information about candidates (e.g. interests, achievements, previous work experiences) you found online with the help of your sourcing tool to connect with them more naturally.
• Meet candidates in person when possible. If you found a great potential candidate using your sourcing tool, look for event overlap. For example, they might mention that they are attending the same conference you are going to on Twitter or Meetup.com. Once at the conference, be prepared to introduce yourself to them and get to know them.

The post How to evaluate talent sourcing tools and choose the right ones for your business appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

1. Make a Twitter list

Twitter lists are groups of Twitter accounts you can curate to help organize your feed. When you view a list, you’ll only see tweets from its members. For example, if you want to read tweets exclusively from your company’s HR team, search on Twitter and make a list with the accounts of all employees working at your HR department.

Below is a list about HR-related topics created by HR Grapevine News. You can follow this list by subscribing and reading tweets from all its members.

Here’s how to create a sourcing list on Twitter:

Click on your avatar on the top right of your page and choose the “Lists” option. You’ll see all lists you’re already a member of and a prompt to create a new one.

Name your new list, add a description and choose to make it private (only accessible by you) or public (anyone can subscribe to the list.) Opt for private if you want to follow people without notifying them. To add a person or company to your list, go to their profile, click on the settings symbol (the gear next to the Follow/Following button) and choose “Add or remove from lists.” Pick the list you want to add them to and you’re done.

Here’s how to use Twitter lists to improve your sourcing:

• Create private Twitter lists to recruit passive candidates. This will save you valuable time when you want to contact candidates, as you’ll have their profiles organized in one place. If you spot something interesting among someone’s tweets, you could send them a message. Such lists could also serve as talent pipelines. Consider adding past candidates who you almost hired. If you want to consider them for a future role, it’s best to keep up with their activity.

For EU candidates specifically, please refer to guidance on using social media for recruiting and collecting candidate information as per the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR.

• Craft public Twitter lists to stir up recruitment interest. Public Twitter lists could be a smart way to attract passive candidates and increase your response rate to cold emails. Create a list using an interesting name, like “The Ruby-on-Rails Incredibles” and add people who’d make great candidates for similar roles. Once they see you’ve added them to that list, you’ll have their attention. Including them in your list could also increase your chances of getting a response, if you decide to contact them.

• Group candidates in event guest lists. Twitter lists can help you promote events you host by allowing you to curate a guest list and keep in touch. They can also help you keep track of the attendees of industry events (regardless of whether you attend those events or not).You can find potential candidates without meeting them in person if they tweet about an event or conference in an industry you’re recruiting for. Tools like IFTTT and simplify360 can automate your list-building by adding people to lists based on what you’re looking for. For example, while sourcing a marketing operations hire in Boston, it’d be a good idea to add Boston-based attendees of #Mrktgnation or #Dreamforce to your sourcing list.

2. Advance your recruiting search

Instead of using a simple sourcing search, consider Twitter advanced search feature. It allows you to find candidates on Twitter by multiple criteria like location, keywords, languages and hashtags. To grow your network of passive candidates, you could also look for people who mention other users. Even if someone you approach isn’t currently interested in your job opportunity, they might be connected to someone who is.

You can filter your search results by accounts, tweets, videos, photos and news. Twitter advanced search is also helpful when you want to track specific tweets from a passive candidate and use them to craft a personalized message about your job opportunity.

3. Use Boolean search for better sourcing

An alternative to Twitter’s advanced search is using Google to find candidates. Boolean search strings help you scan Twitter to identify professionals with your desired criteria. For example, a simple search for mobile developers in Boston with experience in Swift, could look like this:

Boolean search can also help you find public lists that gather professionals from a specific industry who usually tweet about related topics. For example, here’s a boolean string you could use to search for lists of interesting UX designers:

This sourcing search returns public lists, like “UX Design” “User Experience (UX)” and “awesome UX/Design people.” You can subscribe to these lists, follow their discussions and explore other lists curated by the same account.

Workable’s Boolean search cheat sheets provide sample search strings to recruit experienced candidates.

4. Use the right hashtags

Hashtags help you find the right candidate. Think of hashtags like targeted keywords that help broadcast your job posts to relevant Twitter users. Make your hashtags as skill-specific as possible: for example, #sales and #London are more effective than #jobs and #hiring.

Maximize your hashtags by choosing the most popular and relevant ones. Online tools like Hashtags.org provide metrics and tracking systems for your hashtags. There are also free hashtag generators, like all-hashtag.com and hashtaggenerator.com. Hashtagify.me can also help you find, and visualize, relevant topic hashtags based on trends and analytics:

Want more detailed information on various sourcing methods? Download our free sourcing guide.

5. Build before you need

Don’t wait until a job becomes vacant. While recruiting on Twitter won’t replace your traditional hiring methods, it’s a great tool to get in touch with potential candidates. Start building relationships with them today.

Glen Cathey, a talent acquisition consultant and keynote speaker, explains how Twitter discussions can benefit your recruiting endeavors:

“Engaging people on Twitter is really no different that striking up a conversation in person. You hear someone talking about the game last night, a book they read, a work challenge, etc., and you can easily jump right in with relevant content and/or questions…engaging people in two-way conversations is social.”

Keep talking to promising people, comment on their tweets and share relevant updates. Effective social media sourcing isn’t about finding and closing candidates quickly. It’s a long-term employer brand building exercise.

The post Sourcing on Twitter: Advanced search strategies for recruiting appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

How to find passive candidates

1. Meet them online
2. Meet them in person
3. Meet them through connections
4. Meet them through past hiring processes
5. Meet them through tools and services

Meet passive candidates online

• Use Twitter and Facebook. Platforms like Twitter and Facebook have billions of users. You can use Twitter’s advanced search to find hashtags that can help you look into passive candidates. For example, if you’re looking for a content manager, you could look into hashtags like #contentmarketing or #SEO. Look for those who tweet interesting insights or answer questions. You can follow them and reach out through Twitter. You can also follow companies that do well in their industry and connect with their people. Participating in Twitter chats, which are group conversations held at a specific time, can also help you find interesting professionals. Similarly, in addition to the job posting capability, Facebook’s graph search can help you find people who match certain criteria. For example, if you write “salespeople who have studied in New York” in search, Facebook will return a long list of matching profiles. It’d be a good idea to look for people who have been at their job for some time (for example, from two to four years). They’re more likely to be open to a new opportunity.

• Try more targeted social media. The more social media you’re involved in, the more likely you are to stumble upon someone great. Platforms like Instagram, Reddit and Snapchat aren’t as popular for recruiting as professional-oriented sites like LinkedIn or Xing. But, that also means that recruiters will be scarce on these platforms and competition will be lower. For example, on Reddit, you can search for discussions of interest and spot those who seem knowledgeable on their field. Or go through subreddits where people are looking for a job. Be careful, though: users on these platforms mightn’t like aggressive recruiting. It’d be best if you’re a committed user.

• Check out Portfolio/Work sample sites. Another advantage of online sourcing is that you could actually see candidates’ work on online portfolio sites. This works well for creative professionals like designers who contribute to Behance, Dribble and Carbonmade. Github is also a good option to find developers by looking at team or individual projects. A good alternative for sourcing engineers would be sites like Codility, Devskiller, and HackerRank (Workable’s partner). Through these sites, you can host coding challenges and choose candidates who got the highest scores.

• Try sourcing tools. The benefit of sourcing talent from online communities is that you see prospects in environments where they’re active and engaged. Reaching out to passive candidates is better when you can personalize your communication – and that’s always easier with more information. Tools like People Search work in tandem with online communities. Find any candidate profile on Facebook, Angel List, Twitter, GitHub, Dribbble and Behance and activate the extension. People Search will build a complete profile, often including an email address, resume and other social networks in which your prospect is active. Verify their social graph before you connect.

Related: Recruiting tools and techniques for modern HR teams

Meet passive candidates in person

Even in the age of social media, there’s still nothing better than actually meeting someone in person. Being in the same room and connecting with passive candidates builds trust and rapport.

There are many conferences and events you can attend or participate in. Search sites like meetup.com and eventbrite.com to find relevant events. You can also see who will be attending so you can prepare. Knowing more about a person before you meet them can help your conversations flow easier. You can use People Search for this purpose. Highlight a name from an attendee list and right click. People Search will provide you with information you can use to have meaningful discussions. This works after events, too – if you meet someone great, you can use People Search to look them up and contact them afterwards.

Hackathons, career fairs and campus events are other great options to meet great candidates. Hosting your own events is a good idea too.

When you meet with people in person you have better chances to find out if they’d be interested in a new job. Try to discover whether they’re happy in their current role. You can ask them about their future plans for their career – if they’re moving up in their company, they’ll probably be less likely to want to leave. Focus on what they want and decide if you can offer them a job that matches their aspirations.

Meet passive candidates through connections

Often, the best employees are those who are referred by other employees. They’re usually more productive and less likely to quit. Same goes for those referred by people you trust, like an external recruiter. Send your colleagues an email asking for referrals. It’d be best if these emails are specific. Describe the role you’re sourcing for and brief them on your most important requirements. Setting up a program with incentives for successful referrals can also be a good idea.

Before you turn to other people for referrals, think of your network first. You probably already know someone, like a previous coworker or fellow alum, who is familiar with the profession you’re sourcing for. You could reconnect and discuss opportunities.

Meet them through past hiring processes

Rejected candidates from the past could be the best candidates in the future. If you already have a candidate database or an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), you have an abundance of candidate profiles at your fingertips. Sift through your talent pool and talent pipelines. Many candidates might have been rejected in the final stage of the hiring process. In the meantime, they could have found other jobs and gained more skills and experience. See what they’re up to.

Note that for this approach to work, your company should aim to provide a great candidate experience. Candidates who were treated well and were impressed with your company are more likely to consider working for you in the future. Conversely, those who had a bad experience mightn’t be too pleased to hear from you again.

Meet them through tools and services

Manually searching social media isn’t the only way to find candidates. Search engines like Monster’s Talentbin, Careerbuilder’s resume database and zillionresumes.com can help you discover people who fit your requirements. They offer big databases of resumes that you can search through. They might also help you by finding candidates’ contact details through their social media accounts. Professional sourcing services can also be valuable allies when recruiters don’t have time to source on their own.

Want more detailed information on various sourcing methods? Download our free sourcing guide.

How to screen passive candidates

1. Have a clear understanding of your objectives
2. Check out passive candidates’ social media accounts
3. Keep an open mind about their online presence

It’s best to screen passive candidates in the same way you screen active candidates.

Have a clear understanding of your objectives

A clear list of requirements is the starting point for any effective sourcing strategy. If you’re sourcing for a position, you should have the ‘must-have’ qualifications in the forefront of your mind. Even if you’re just looking to expand your network or talent pool, having some general qualities in mind can help.

Check out passive candidates’ social media accounts

By looking at a wide range of candidates’ accounts, you can understand them better and verify their information.

According to Careerbuilder’s annual social media recruitment survey, hiring managers and HR professionals rejected candidates because of:

• Provocative or inappropriate photographs, videos or information
• Information about candidates drinking or using drugs
• Discriminatory comments related to race, religion, gender, etc.
• Bad-mouthing previous company or fellow employees
• Poor communication skills

All of these issues are relevant to your sourcing.

Keep an open mind about their online presence

You might have heard that the approach “hire for attitude, train for skills” is effective. It’s true that some skills can be easily taught, so it’s often best to be forgiving with candidates who don’t have specific experience or training. Potential and motivation are usually more important. People who attend conferences, actively engage in forums relevant to their profession and showcase their best work on portfolio sites can be great candidates regardless of their experience.

Being fastidious about non-job related information on social media could lead you astray. Candidates who don’t handle words like professional writers, make small mistakes or post something you mightn’t like aren’t necessarily bad candidates.

How to recruit passive candidates

1. Approach passive candidates carefully
2. Send personalized sourcing emails
3. Communicate what passive candidates want to know

Passive candidates aren’t looking for a job but they might still be interested for new opportunities.

Approach passive candidates carefully

Many recruiters use multiple social media platforms to source passive candidates. Granted, passive candidates probably don’t expect as many recruiters to approach them on Facebook or Twitter as they would on LinkedIn. Receiving messages from recruiters on more ‘personal’ platforms might appear weird or intrusive to some people. But, a well crafted message still has a chance to win them over.

Honesty and simplicity are key. Introduce yourself when joining forums and try to participate in conversations on Twitter or other social media before sending cold messages. That way, when you do reach out, you can have a ‘warmer’ introduction.

Just the right amount of persistence can help a lot. Some recruiters can come across as pushy or spammy if they fill people’s inboxes with lots of messages. If you’re not getting a response, reaching out three times can be a good guideline.

Send personalized sourcing emails

When was the last time you thought of responding to a bulk sourcing email? Probably never. Passive candidates are usually pretty happy with their jobs. That’s why they’re not actively looking for new ones. The only way to draw them out of their routine is to earn their trust and steer their interest. Neither can be done through a general email that could have been sent to hundreds of people.

Personalized emails require some extra thought. You could use a general template to save time. But, the email’s substance should address what really drew you to a candidate’s profile. Mention how their (specific) accomplishments connect to the job or company you’re sourcing for. Give them just enough detail to start a discussion. A lengthy email with excessive information won’t be as attractive as a short, concrete one. You can use Boolean search techniques to find your candidate’s email address.

Related: Sourcing on Google: Boolean search for recruiters

It’s also important to think of their possible wishes and interests. When looking through their profile, try to figure out what they’re interested in. For example, they might hold a position as an Android developer, but take part in a lot of  Python coding challenges. Or they might recently have taken management courses online. If they have, it’s likely they’ll have shared a certificate on LinkedIn or even on Pinterest. These could be clues for what their plans and wishes are. If you’re sourcing for a relevant position, you can say you noticed their activities and explain how your position relates to them. In general, look for information that can help you understand candidates’ needs – particularly anything that hints at what they’d like to do next.

Communicate what passive candidates want to know

According to LinkedIn’s 2016 US & Canada talent trends report, 89% of professionals are open to new job opportunities. Almost 75% of these passive candidates want to know about a company’s culture and values as well as perks and benefits. And 63% want to know about a company’s office locations. The report also includes direct advice from passive candidates. They urge employers to give an honest, rather than a rosy, view of their company. Candidates are curious about employees’ opinions and want to know what makes your company stand out. They also want to know about your job’s expectations and workload and how taking on a new role will impact their career.

It’s important that you approach passive candidates with useful information. It’s nice if you can write a friendly and interesting email. But, ultimately, passive candidates will consider changing jobs if they have a clear picture of what you can offer them.

The post How to source passive candidates appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Slack facilitates collaboration by creating open communication channels. It’s easy to navigate and very user-friendly.

Here’s an overview of Slack basics:

• Slack communities are groups of Slack users who gather around a general field of interest. Each community consists of multiple channels, made for specific topics.

• Channels support open conversations between all team members. A community member can freely join any channel they want. Here’s an example (on the right) of a Content Research Optimization community, offering relevant advice to marketers.

• There’s also an option to create private channels, where the content is limited to small member groups. They are best used for sensitive or confidential topics. Members can only join a private channel by invitation.

• Direct messages and group messages are useful for quick, private conversations between two or more team members.

Recruiting on social media? Workable is the industry leader with recruitment features to find and hire the best candidates. Sign up for our 15-day free trial.

Why choose Slack for recruiting:

Slack is quick

Slack offers all the benefits of group chat with real-time response. Sending emails is a safe way to contact an interesting candidate, but, as your response rates might indicate, email is not always the most effective sourcing method. If you’re having a conversation in a Slack channel, you can pose a question about, or comment on, something you found interesting and get an instant reply. Between busy schedules and video meetings, it’s usually easier to answer a quick, informal question than it is to craft a reply email.

Slack is easy

Recruiters can use many of Slack’s features and integrations to source candidates. All content inside Slack is searchable, including files, conversations and member profiles. Integration with tools like Google Drive makes communication even more efficient. Slack channels are like Facebook chats, Whatsapp groups or Skype calls. People with common professional interests (e.g. Python programming) use Slack to share related ideas, spread industry news and have conversations. Its advantage is that it’s playful and casual, which sets the right tone when you want to meet potential candidates without using formal or impersonal messages.

Slack is real

When you have conversations with people on Slack, you get first-hand experience of what keeps them motivated at work: what industry trends they follow, what upcoming conferences they’re attending and where they find inspiration. Following discussions and actively asking questions make a recruiter’s job easier. On Slack, recruiters can get a better idea of how to approach potential candidates by mentioning topics they’re actually interested in.

For more advice on social sourcing, download our complete sourcing guide for free.

What candidates will you find on Slack?

With roughly 3 million daily active users and an increasing number of new channels, it’s worth exploring recruitment in the Slack world.

Slack is particularly popular with developers and designers who don’t usually check their LinkedIn profiles or respond to cold recruiting emails. They’re more likely to hang out in places like Slack.

Here are the most popular Slack communities, categorized by skill set.

When deciding which communities to join, read their descriptions and comments and take a look at how their discussions are flowing.

Some communities are open and viewable to the public, whereas other are private, meaning you have to request access. In most cases, all you need to do is fill out your name, your email and a brief description. Then, you wait for an invite email from the community moderator. Keep in mind that a few communities require a subscription fee.

How to recruit candidates on Slack:

When you choose an appropriate channel, you can let people know about your job opening. Introduce yourself, mention what you’re looking for and provide any necessary information. Slack users could either contact you for more details or share your job ad with other people who might be interested.

Once you’ve found a potential candidate, it’s best to contact them individually. You can send a private (direct) message, but only if you’ve previously introduced yourself and engaged in a public conversation. Otherwise, some channels could ban you for spamming.

You should discover more about each candidate before reaching out to them. Google them and search via LinkedIn and other social networks. Or, research them with People Search; a Chrome extension that gathers resumes, social profiles and contact details from multiple online sources.

(Note: When looking up information on EU candidates, please refer to guidance on using social media for recruiting and collecting candidate information as per the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR.)

To get the most out of Slack you’ll have to invest some time in discussions. This mightn’t be your first option when trying to hire an employee on short notice. But, building relationships with qualified professionals will improve your sourcing, long-term.

Other ways to use Slack for recruiting:

Slack is a good space to encourage employee referrals. You could simply create a Slack channel within your company, where you announce new job openings and prompt employees to refer candidates. Or, go a little further, like eFounders, and create an entire referral bonus program within Slack. Employees earn virtual currency – called the briqs – when their referred candidate moves to the next hiring level and can buy ‘cool stuff’ (like a Wii) for the office, or for themselves. All eFounders’ referrals, update notifications and briqs rewards happen through Slack.

You can also use Slack to improve your employer brand. Create your own product development community and invite external members to join. You can announce new features, get feedback on your products and services and discuss new ideas. People will gain a sneak peek of how your company works and might actively apply to your next opening. It’s best to complement your company’s Slack presence with your other social media profiles to strengthen your brand.

Slack’s competitive advantage is how it integrates with popular applications and tools. If you’re using an ATS, you can get notifications for candidate applications, which could simplify and organize your recruiting.

If you’re already using Slack for your internal communication, you know how much it can improve your team collaboration. You may want to consider complementing your onboarding process with a message in Slack to announce a new hire. This can be very helpful for remote teams that don’t have the chance to meet every new employee in person.

Slack can be an excellent recruitment companion because it’s quick, easy and fun. Sometimes it’s hard to resist getting distracted by its many emojis and features, though. But, if you try to take the fun element out of Slack, you’re probably missing part of its point:

The post How to use Slack for recruiting appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Why Google+?

Google+ has 540 million monthly active users, but the real number of people actually using it might be significantly lower. So, why should recruiters bother trying to source on Google+?

• It’s best to think in terms of quality, not quantity. Google+ offers great chances for professionals to showcase their work through online portfolios. Take a look at Google+ communities and you’ll discover hidden gems; designers, writers and photographers are some of the most active Google+ users.

• Google+ comes bearing gifts. We all use Google on a daily basis and for good reasons: It has the biggest free email platform (Gmail), owns the largest video-sharing website (YouTube) and offers 15GB of cloud storage for free. Google+ integrates all of these benefits, which makes it user-friendly and effective.

• It links with Gmail. You can leverage Google to communicate with potential candidates, even if you don’t have their contact information. You can send them a message via their Google+ profile and they’ll instantly get a notification in their Gmail account.

• Mobile connectivity is a strong asset. The Google+ mobile app is fast and has a strong compatibility with Android devices.

• Google goes hand in hand with SEO. Many job seekers (especially the least active ones) might opt for a Google search before reaching out to a recruiter or visiting job portals. To get ahead of the competition, you should think beyond your daily recruiting habits. Connecting through Google+ could benefit your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts and improve your company page rankings.

• Sourcing is only one part of the recruitment cycle. Among Google’s apps you’ll find Hangouts, a communication platform. You could easily schedule a quick call (or interview) with an interesting candidate you reached through Google+. This allows you to accelerate your recruiting process, while keeping things casual.

• Why not? It’s an open platform, meaning it’s easy to use and keeps developing. Plus, search options are free, compared to other channels that charge users for growing their network.

How to source on Google+

Search profiles

The first time you sign into Google+ you’ll see a search box similar to Google search.

Although Google+ search does a decent job, it doesn’t offer much precision. So, it’s best to opt for Google search using boolean strings to get more accurate results.

If you want to search candidates by location, you should include both tenses: ‘lives’ and ‘lived.’ Google+ used to have a ‘Places Lived’ section for each profile. Although this doesn’t exist now, the user’s current location might still be displayed as a place where they ‘lived.’ Keep in mind that even if you find a person who ‘lives in New York’, you should still double-check. This information might be inaccurate, if they haven’t updated their profile in a while.

It could also be interesting to search for employees who work (or worked) at a specific company. Again, you should confirm your results, in case some candidates’ profiles are out-of-date.

Boolean strings are also helpful when you’re looking to narrow down your search to specific skills or qualifications.

For more advice on social sourcing, download our complete sourcing guide for free.

What to look for in profiles

Once an interesting profile grabs your attention, you can instantly learn more about them. Depending on their social habits, Google+ users post their opinions, share interesting articles and promote their work. They could also have a different version of their resume – think of it as a mini bio (often, with more personality). You can access a user’s summary by clicking the ‘About’ tab on their profile.

Many users include a downloadable version of their resumes and links to their personal blog or portfolio website. These kinds of sources will give you better insight into your candidate’s background and interests, before you decide to reach out. You can use this information to personalize your communication and prepare relevant interview questions.

Communities

All social media platforms share one goal: to help users connect and interact with each other. For Google+, this happens in Communities. People with common interests can join (or create) groups to exchange views, discover new trends and engage in direct conversations. As a recruiter, instead of searching for individuals, you could complement your sourcing strategy by looking for relevant communities. You’ll get an idea of what professionals from a specific field are interested in. If, for example you’re looking for developers, you could browse general communities about web development, look for specific skills (e.g. Android developers and PHP developers) or explore other topics that your potential candidates might be interested in, like game development. You could also actively post your job openings to certain communities, where people are looking for new opportunities.

When you join a community, you get access to the members list, so there’s even more room for reaching out to potential candidates.

Communities can be public or private (meaning you’ll need to get an invite to join or ask the community moderator to accept you in the group). For private communities, in particular, you’ll need to pay closer attention to their community guidelines and make sure you respect the rules, otherwise you could get a permanent ban.

Circles

Google+ circles is a feature that can help you organize your recruiting. You can categorize your contacts and choose what updates you see from them. If you add people who don’t follow you, they’ll also be able to see posts you share with that circle. It’s best to create different circles for different positions, skills and locations. Then, add people you follow to the appropriate circle. They’ll get notified you’ve added them to a circle but they won’t know which one. By using this feature you could create your own talent pools and stay in touch with previous candidates. For example, if you’re offering some new internships, you could share that information with your ‘college undergraduates’ circle.

Build your company Google+ page

While you’re posting job ads or sending recruiting emails, your potential candidates are also performing their own sourcing. Keeping that in mind, it’s best to provide active social media pages with relevant content to attract more candidates. Start by creating your business page, setting up your account settings and then updating with regular posts about company news, new products and services and open job opportunities. Google+ allows you to upload images and videos to create an attractive page. Hugo Boss uses Google+ to promote its products. NASA shares great content in its Google+ page. And BBC News updates its followers with news updates.

Google+ mightn’t be anyone’s first option when it comes to thinking about new sourcing techniques. But before rejecting it, give it a shot. It could be a pleasant surprise. Besides, the fact that it’s not the most popular social network among recruiters, makes it even more tempting. The less recruiting competition there is, the more likely you are to stand out from the crowd.

More resources for social recruiting:

• FAQ about Social Media Recruiting
• Recruiting on Twitter
• Advanced Sourcing on Twitter
• Recruiting on Facebook
• Recruiting on Snapchat
• Recruiting on Instagram
• Recruiting with SMS
• Want to source more candidates on Google? Learn how to get your job listings featured on Google for Jobs.

The post How to source on Google+ appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

A personalized message has to be unique, so ‘one-size-fits-all’ templates aren’t exactly helpful. But you can craft each email keeping a few rules in mind.

 1. Research

You can’t personalize email templates if you haven’t done your research first. Invest some time to learn a few things about your candidate, beyond the first few Google results or LinkedIn headlines. Research will also help you understand whether your recipient would add value to your company and what will be meaningful to them to make them consider your opening. Use various sources, like social media, blogs and portfolio samples of their previous work. Then, craft your email expressing what you liked, posing a question or asking for more details. (For EU candidates, please refer to this guidance on using social media for recruiting under the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR.)

Want to learn more about effective candidate sourcing techniques? Download our complete sourcing guide for free.

2. Customize

Personalization doesn’t mean pretending to write something personal when you’re actually just sending bulk emails. If you were to delete the first line (‘Hi [Candidate’s name]’) would the rest of your email’s body copy say something personal or could it speak to anybody? Your message emailing a passive candidate  shouldn’t leave any doubts. Tailor your recruitment email to your recipient’s background and field of interest.

3. Focus on the subject line

Your personalization starts from your subject line. You don’t want to write a perfect email that ends up unread in your recipient’s trash. Your subject line is the determining factor in whether your email gets opened. So, you should make it count: Use a short phrase that explains what the email is about and something personal to let your recipient know that your email addresses them, specifically. Using your recipient’s name in the subject line could increase your open rate by 20%. It’s best to opt for this option when it feels natural, though, otherwise your message could look like spam.

4. Tailor your message

It may be less time-consuming to use a boilerplate template for your sourcing emails, but crafting a short and targeted message will improve your response rate. To personalize emails effectively, you need to understand who you’re sending to (what matters to them?) and why you’re sending them an email (why do you think they’d be good candidate?)

Here are some customized examples of how you can apply these guidelines to personalize your emails for passive candidates.

Cold emails

You’ve spotted an interesting candidate on LinkedIn, stumbled across a promising developer’s project on GitHub or discovered a writer’s engaging personal blog. Your next step is to introduce yourself. First, try to get in their shoes. What would you want to know when receiving an email from a stranger? What would make you open that email? Your subject line needs to clearly state what your email is about and grab your recipient’s attention.

Examples:

• Hi [Candidate’s name], your [X] project caught my eye
• Hi [Candidate’s name], interested in joining our [Company’s name] team?
• [Company’s name] is looking for a talented [Job title] (perhaps it’s you?)
• Potential job opportunity at [Company name]

In your email mention exactly how you found out about your recipient and what made you want to reach out to them. Keep it job-related to spark your recipient’s interest in your job opening.

Examples:

• I can tell you are an expert in [e.g. mobile development / ruby on rails api] based on your [profile, article, blog, etc.]
• Our team is doing some interesting work in [e.g. web design] which appears to be what you’re drawn to.
• I really loved your post about [X, e.g. new marketing techniques] on [e.g.Twitter].

Referrals

Employee referrals are usually an effective way to source candidates. However, you still need to pay attention when you first communicate with referrals. Mention the name of the person who made the referral in your subject line, to increase the likelihood that your recipient will open your email.

Examples:

• Referral from [Employee’s name]
• [Employee’s name] mentioned you’re a great [Job title]
• [Employee’s name] thinks you’d be a good [Job title] for our team

Having a mutual connection is a starting point, but doesn’t qualify as a reason to consider someone for your job opening. Format your email to highlight how your recipients’s skills and experience match your specific job requirements.

Examples:

• I’ve heard about the great work you’re doing in the [e.g. sales development] field.
• We’re always interested in growing our [e.g. customer service] team with passionate people and from what I’ve heard you have extensive experience in this area.

Past candidates

There are various reasons why you might decide to reach out to a candidate you have previously rejected (or who previously turned down one of your job offers.) First, you should personalize the email to remind your recipient about who you are and what your company does.

Examples:

• New job opportunity at [Company name]
• Interested in a new job opportunity with [Company name]?
• Reaching out with a new job opportunity at [Company name]

Your recipient might be surprised to hear from you again, so be straightforward about why you decided to contact them. (Please note that if this is an EU candidate, you should have already informed them that you have kept their contact details and resume on file, as per GDPR.)

Examples:

• Although we decided to move forward with a different candidate for the [Job tile] role last [month name], your interview performance really stood out and we would like to discuss another role we think you might be interested in.

• From what I see in your profile, you’ve recently graduated from [college] and I thought you might be interested in checking out our current openings.

• I can tell from your profile that you have gained solid experience in [specific field, e.g. social media marketing] and I would like to talk to you about a role we’re currently hiring for.

• We were really impressed by your skills and we’d be open to another conversation about salary requirements, if you’re still interested/available.

Mutual interests

In this scenario, you share something in common with the candidate you want to reach out to. So, when you personalize this email, it’s worth mentioning what connects you, to give a more friendly tone to your message.

Examples:

• Subject line: Reconnecting after [College name]
  Hi [Recipient’s name],
  It’s been a while but it feels like it was only yesterday we were trying to debug that code from [professor’s name] class. What have you been up to ever since?
  I’m currently working as a [Your job title] at [Company name] and we have an opening for a [Job title.] We are looking for someone with background like yours and I thought you might be interested in joining our team.

• Subject line: Reconnecting from [previous company]
  Hi [Recipient’s name],
  I hope everything is going well for you.
  I’m currently working as a [Your job title] at [Company’s name] and we have an opening for a [Job title.] I remembered that your skills in [specific field, e.g. JavaScripts] are exceptional so I thought you might be interested in this position. Plus, it would be nice to catch up again.’

• Subject line: [Company’s name]: Follow-up from [jobs fair/ recruitment event]
  Hi [Recipient’s name],
  I’m [Your name], [Your job title] from [Company name.] We met at [Insert specific details: name, place and time of the event.]
  Our short chat prompted me to check out your profile/resume and I see you’ve done some interesting work in [specific field.] We are currently looking for a [Job title] with your experience. I’d be happy to talk to you about the role, if you’re interested.

• Subject line: [Your Twitter username] from [Twitter chat]
  ‘Hi [Recipient’s name],
  I’m [Your name], ([Your Twitter username], on Twitter). When I’m not tweeting, I’m recruiting for [Company name.] We’re looking for a [Job title]. You seem to have some interesting opinions about [specific field] so I would like to tell you a little bit more about our position and get to know you better, if you’re interested.

Mistakes to avoid

There’s personalization and there’s over-personalization. You don’t need to comment on your candidate’s Facebook photos to get their attention. Asking a question about their latest job-related post, though, could be a good talking point. You want to send the message that you’re genuinely interested in your candidate and you’ve invested some time to learn about them, but only in a strictly professional way.

Take the time to record and analyze recruiting email metrics. These statistics will help you grow and improve your emails to passive candidates over time.

We all share some personal things on social media, but it’s best not to mention them, in recruiting contexts. That way, you’ll avoid showing bias or saying anything inappropriate. It’s best to follow a simple rule of thumb: don’t mention anything that’s illegal to ask in a job interview. There’s a thin line between sourcing and stalking and you don’t want to cross it.

The post How to personalize emails for passive candidates appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

You want to build meaningful relationships within the technical community instead of blasting out generic emails. And you want to see programmers’ actual projects and code so you can differentiate the good from great. Give GitHub a try. While not necessarily branded as a recruitment site, it can help you get more information about coders’ projects, interests, and collaborations. Here at Codility, we use GitHub (among other sites) to source and recruit developers. In fact, we’ve filled two technical positions using GitHub in the past year.

What is GitHub?

GitHub is a site that hosts a community of developers who can showcase the projects they’ve worked on and the code they’ve written. You can also see their contributions to public collaborations, like open-source projects. Make sure you take advantage of the site’s social aspect, so you can form positive relationships with potential candidates and transform GitHub into your new favorite recruitment site.

Sourcing on GitHub

There’s a ton of information on an individual’s GitHub profile, but the most relevant is the repositories section. Here, you can see their forks (projects they’ve contributed code to) and sources (things they’ve built or are building.)

Here are specific things to look for when sourcing software developers on GitHub:

• A long history of contributing to big projects and big libraries. This shows that they’re not just a user of certain languages or initiatives, but that they understand them deep down to the roots and actively work to make them better. Some great examples of open-source project participation are contributions to Django, Webpack, Firefox, Chromium, and React.
• Sharing pet projects with the world. Programmers who do solo projects and then publish them signal that they don’t work in isolation and that they want to share and collaborate with others. They also show that they are programmers outside of work, not just at work.
• What kind of issues they report and how they report them. Even if software developers haven’t started up or worked on many projects, you’ll notice their passion and drive when they report software issues. Pay attention to whether they’re just complaining, or if they’re writing meaningful requests and issue summaries. The latter demonstrates an ability to communicate around an obstacle and a willingness to work with others to alleviate problems.
• Stars. Each project a GitHub user has on their profile can earn “stars” from peers. Use star ratings to gauge community response to projects coders have worked on or created. Use the following numbers as thresholds: 100 stars is solid and 1,000 is programmer-famous. But keep in mind that it’s generally easier to earn stars for forks on high-profile projects than on sources, so don’t use stars as the only indicator.
• Contribution graph. The greener the better. You can use the contribution graph as a quick proxy for programmer activity levels in the coding community, and then delve into other parts of their profiles for specifics.
• Followers. If someone has a large following it means they’ve done a significant amount of work on GitHub and other programmers are drawn to their work. More than 50 followers indicates a decent following, but keep in mind some people are really good at corralling their friends and family to their profiles.

How to recruit on GitHub

So, on your quest to find developers to reach out to, you’ve found some really talented, collaborative people you want to connect with. What now?

Do not copy/paste the same cold email you use in your LinkedIn Recruiter account.

Form a strategy instead. After all, the goal here isn’t to reach out to as many coders possible, as quickly as possible. It’s to build relationships with people who might potentially join your team. And that starts with a genuine, thoughtful first email.

Talk to your technical interviewers or hiring managers first. Provide them with the list of GitHub profiles of people you think are good fits, and then co-author cold emails together. And most importantly, have your hiring manager be the one to send the email because they have more technical credibility in the coding community.

When talking about opportunities at your company, include the following in your messages:

• What technology stack you use
• The challenges your engineering organization, product, and company face
• How a new hire can grow and develop
• Any cool events you host, like hack days or meetups
• Opportunities to explore new technologies and tools
• Links to your own developers’ GitHub profiles, especially those who are active
• How a new hire can make an impact on the team

Using these tactics, the tech recruiting team here at Codility achieves a 30% response rate when reaching out to developers on GitHub.

Of course, if you’ve found a superstar that seems like a good fit for a role that’s particularly hard to fill (think Director of Mobile Engineering), it might be wise to not send an email like this at all. Instead of sending a sourcing email, even if it’s a highly personalized and well-thought-out sourcing email, start with expressing interest in projects they’ve contributed to or are currently working on. This will spark a more natural conversation, and if it makes sense, your hiring manager can also speak about the open role at your company later. Do this right and you may capture the attention of 10x developers.

Use the interview process to hire the best developers

You’ve done a good job so far sourcing and contacting skilled programmers on GitHub. Keep up the momentum by ensuring that:

• Your entire recruiting process is a great experience and that you keep candidates engaged
• You are running optimized technical interviews to get the most out of in-person interviews
• You’re balancing objective and subjective measures when assessing candidates

Hiring teams need to be increasingly resourceful and strategic in how they look for tech talent. Use this guide to identify strong programmers on GitHub, study their online activity and then send a personalized email to kick things off. Combined with other sourcing methods, you now have a well-rounded game plan and a new go-to recruitment site to find and connect with your next stellar engineering hire.

Ruslan Khalilov, Technical Recruiter @Codility, is passionate about connecting people to their dream jobs. He focuses his efforts on finding great technical candidates, leveraging his experiences in marketing for employer branding and understanding the European startup ecosystem. 

The post How to source and recruit software developers on GitHub appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

With the right mix of sourcing methods and tools, you can reach out to and connect with a large number of passive candidates. Whether you’re actively looking to fill positions or simply building relationships for the future, improving your recruitment sourcing strategies can improve your recruitment yield ratio over time.

Here are a few techniques on how to enhance your recruitment sourcing strategy:

Expand your social network sourcing

Say “social network sourcing” and LinkedIn immediately comes to mind. Most people have a LinkedIn profile, so qualified candidates are ample on its platform. But, other social networks like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat are trending up as methods of sourcing. An engaged company presence on various platforms can help you communicate with and attract talented people. Think about which platforms are more relevant to your search criteria. Here’s a list of some well-known and lesser-known social media networks that can be good for this purpose:

Note: For EU candidates, please refer to this guidance on using social media for recruiting under the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR.

Source candidates on Twitter and Facebook

Twitter and Facebook are both great options for talent sourcing. Most people have a Twitter and Facebook presence. Recruiting using Facebook graph search with the right terms can yield very relevant results.

For example, if you want a marketing professional who studied in New York and works at Johnson&Johnson, Facebook search can source all profiles that fit these criteria. Following conversations on Twitter can help you find an online community of qualified candidates. For example, it’s easy to follow hashtags such as #Java or #pycon to find people who attend the annual Python conference. You can also use Twitter’s advanced search to discover conversations happening in a particular location or about a particular topic.

You can use Workable’s People Search to easily find the social profiles of your passive candidates.

Discover tech candidates on Github

Github is an online platform where developers keep their code and work on individual or collective projects. Through Github, companies can connect with developers and evaluate their work. It’s a reliable, rich platform full of people with sought-after skills. The same is true for all online professional sites, where people showcase work samples and have conversations (like Dribbble, Behance, Stack Overflow etc.)

More: Where to post jobs to hire developers

Use Reddit to gauge your candidates’ interests

Few consider Reddit as a talent sourcing tool. It’s a messaging platform where people discuss all kinds of topics. Yet, what place could be better to find great candidates than a huge community of engaged users? It’s more relevant for individual recruiters, but creating a corporate account could prove useful too. You can create subreddits to post jobs and give more information to users. Or you can reply to people actively looking for a job through the site.

Source engaged candidates on Slack

Slack is a messaging tool for teams. While very successful for team collaboration, it can also be used as a sourcing ally. It gives users the ability to create public communities to discuss topics of interest. You can find many qualified people by joining one of the many groups or creating your own to connect and boost your brand.

Refine your search using SEO strategies

Most recruitment sourcing strategies use keyword searches. Most people rely on keywords when surfing online. But using these effective sourcing methods depends on out-of-the-box thinking:

Use different search engines and sites

Google and Bing are great search engines. But, it often pays to try other places for recruiting candidates you might not find in traditional methods. For example, there are specific search engines for talent sourcing like Monster’s talentbin, Scavado or other search engine alternatives to try innovative internet sourcing techniques.

Find the right search keywords

Keywords are the core of internet search. It’s critical to use relevant keywords in your job posts. And it’s just as important to search passive candidates using keywords they’re more likely to use in their resumes or online conversations. Sites like AcronymFinder can help you identify acronyms that are relevant to specific professions. Talking with people who are doing the job you’re sourcing for can help you find the most relevant terms too.

Use Boolean search terms

When sourcing, internet search techniques can get you higher quality results. Using boolean operators like AND, OR and NOT help you refine your search for candidates with specific or overlapping characteristics, and help disqualify candidates too. One technique is flip search which helps you discover people who link to a particular site. For example, a software engineer who has worked for Oracle, is likely to link to Oracle’s site. With the search term: ‘link:www.oracle.com AND “software engineer”‘ you can discover them. Learn about this technique and use it carefully along with others like x-ray search.

Workable’s Boolean search cheat sheets provide sample search strings to recruit experienced candidates.

Grow your employee referral program

Excellent employees know other excellent employees. Companies always ask current employees to refer acquaintances. But most companies don’t take a systematic and strategic approach to referrals. Employee referral programs and software can help a lot. You can track referrals through an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) or with independent software like Zao which includes incentives and gamification technology. Check out some examples of referral programs from well-known companies and start crafting your own.

Download our free sourcing guide for tips on how to create effective referral programs.

Reach out to your talent pool

Meeting passive candidates is an important part of any recruitment sourcing strategy. It’s the key to successfully sourcing candidates:

Source and recruit at meetups and events

Communicating online is a big part of everyone’s life. But most people want to meet “in real life.” They’re also less likely to trust you if you’re always talking to them online, but you’re nowhere to be found at conferences or other events. You can use sites like Meetup to help you meet and source people you want to hire. Hosting or sponsoring recruitment events is also a good sourcing candidates strategy.

Have an active online employer brand

An active corporate presence online is a must for sourcing or simply creating a stronger employer brand. Many companies think having an online presence stops at opening a Facebook account. But engaging people as a method of sourcing requires a lot more effort. Don’t just use social media to find candidates. Allow them to find you and create valuable content to get their attention.

Use professional sourcing services

Employers and recruiters can get the most out of online sourcing by using professional services. There are many online services like Networkmonkey, Resource and 1-Page that scan the Internet to find candidates who match your criteria. If you have a team of competent recruiters, these services might seem redundant. But, they can be useful if recruiters want to dedicate more time to attending events or connecting with passive candidates. Determine what works best for you.

The post Improve your recruitment sourcing strategy: five lesser-known methods appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

For this reason, we’re narrowing this article down to visual designers, or graphic designers. We mention this because the design professionals we’re talking about are fluent in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. Graphic designers have a lot of opinions about fonts and kerning and they can spot the difference between Arial and Helvetica at 50 paces. Graphic design can include web designers, UI designers, or product designers, among others. In addition to these tools, there are dozens of sourcing tools that give you a full picture of all candidates that are out there.

Here’s what you should know when you hire designers: to start, many of the best are already employed. And some designers prefer freelance work to full-time permanent roles. Finally, if you’re recruiting designers for a specific professional background (book design or packaging for example), truly qualified candidates may already be hard to come by. For all these reasons, a larger pool of candidates will make it easier for you to fill these jobs.

Here’s our comprehensive list of places for recruiting designers:

Employee referrals

The recruitment equivalent of leaving money on the table is not asking your team about people they know who might be a good fit. Employee referrals are the oldest and most effective sourcing strategy for all jobs in all industries. Have your team ever worked on any projects that involved design in a significant way? (Website redesign? Annual report?) Who did they work with? Another approach to graphic design recruitment is to huddle together to brainstorm a list of work you admire, the designers who created it, and any connections your colleagues have that might help you bridge the gap between you and those people.

Design meetups and conferences

You may have noticed that it’s not always easy to cold call (or email) a candidate. Having a regular presence at design meetups and conferences will help you get some warm leads to recruit designers, whether they’re active job seekers or designers willing to introduce you to talented friends. Search for relevant events, such as Creative Mornings or TEDx (D stands for Design) in your city on sites like Meetup.com and Eventbrite. 

Design communities, portfolio sites and job boards

Expand the reach of your jobs by recruiting designers online. We’ve put together an alphabetical list of paid and free places where you can post your jobs. This list also includes sites where designers network, get career-related content and display work samples. 

Source and recruit skilled designers with Workable’s Boolean search cheat sheets.

• 99designs.com – If you’d like to quickly hire a freelance visual designer, post a design contest on 99designs.com. Designers will use your project specifications to produce their submissions, and you pick the winner. Here’s a guide to getting started. You can also do this to source candidates for a full-time role down the line.
• Awwwards – Awwwards has an Awards of the Day page that is a fast way to find recent design work lauded by a community of industry peers. Both winners and jurors make up a high-quality candidate pool.
• Behance – Home to the world’s largest creative network. On Behance, you can search over five million profiles by creative fields, schools, tools and keywords. You can also post jobs to their job board.
• Carbonmade – A portfolio site for a wide range of creative professionals. You’ll find illustrators here, but also copywriters, animators, and product designers. There’s also a “for hire” filter in their search bar that you can use to find active jobseekers.
• Coroflot – The longest running career site for creative professionals. Coroflot hosts portfolios, a directory of design firms, a design salary guide, and a database of job and project openings.
• Dribbble – Dribbble hosts portfolios, a job board, and rich user profiles that enable you to search for designers or design teams by skills, cities, and countries. Users can even tell you if they’re looking for work by adding a green “Hire Me” button to their profiles.
• Designjobsboard – A premium job board for creative jobs spanning graphic design, art direction and design management. Vacancies mostly in the US and UK.
• DesignWeek – The UK’s leading design magazine. Publishes news, views and inspiration for designers and other creative professionals. They also boast an active job board.
• HyperIsland (free)– HyperIsland offers online design courses to students around the world. Post jobs on their job board for free, and browse detailed profiles of students and alumni.
• If You Could (free) – If You Could is the job board for the design hub (online mag, print mag, and event series) It’s Nice That, and job ads on this site are free for the first 28 days.
• LinkedIn – There’s lots of ways to find designers on LinkedIn. You can post a job ad, share your job description through your company page, and search for passive candidates by job title and location. You can also look up groups such as Graphic Designer Lounge.
• Squarespace – Many designers’ portfolios are hosted not on a portfolio site, but on their own Squarespace site. Squarespace doesn’t have a search function that will help you surface just designers’ sites, but a Google X-ray search (try site:squarespace.com “graphic designer”) should help.
• The Dots (free) – Earn credit to post design jobs for free through activities such as creating a company profile, and promoting The Dots on social media.

What’s your creative approach to recruiting designers? Talk to us at @workable.

Want more detailed advice on sourcing great candidates? Download our complete guide for free.

The post All the best places to recruit designers appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Read on for more tips or download the complete startup hiring guide eBook for free.

The Hunting Grounds:

• Mature companies: You’re looking for established companies doing a great job at what you’re looking for (eg. selling to SMEs, content marketing). You’re looking for people trained by the best, whose options have vested, who are ready to move on to a new exciting gig.

• Vulnerable companies: Startups are volatile. When a company experiences a shakeup, there’s a window of opportunity. Signs to look for include the departure of a leadership figure; ventures which have gone 18 months with no follow-up funding or rumours of lay-offs. You’re looking for drift and discontent where the talent works so mine the industry reports (CrunchBase, Mattermark, CB Insights, Owler) and listen to the gossip.

• Events: Where do the best people on your shortlist hang out? Think about what kind of events they attend and make sure you’re there. These settings give you the chance to meet people who you may want to approach in the future. When the time comes you will have less cold calling to do.

• Universities: The very best talent are only truly unemployed once in their life: right out of college. Universities have structures that help you identify this top echelon. They’re at careers fairs, on internship programmes, or even doing work experience that contributes course credits.

PRO TIP: Look for companies 6-12 months after a seed funding without followup.

Make A Shortlist And Lean In

Now that we know what to search for, all these sourcing tools (LinkedIn, TalentBin, GitHub, Sourcing.io) actually become useful. Start browsing profiles and make a long-list of prospects. Prioritise people who you can reach out to through your extended network. If you can’t get an intro, then see if you can engage them on social media (Twitter) or engineer a chance meeting.

PRO TIP: Attend startup community meetups, design conventions or hackathons.

A courtship doesn’t begin with leaning in, it starts with people getting to know each other. If you do this well the prospect will have already gotten to know you before the conversation turns to a job offer. These are people you may not hire today, or even one year from now. They may also be the key to introducing you to your best hires in the future.

External Recruiters

This is where you turn when you’re short on time or confidence to follow the steps above. They can be a fantastic shortcut. It might look simple but there are a couple of things to bear in mind. Look out for recruiters who have hired for small companies before and have a track record of placement in the role you’re looking for. Most startups use contingent recruiters whom you pay only when they deliver someone you hire (typically between 15-25% of the hire’s annual salary). The upside is that you only pay for what you get. The downside is that your aim and the recruiter’s aim are not the same. You want to hire great people. They want you to hire someone. This subtle difference can lose you time dealing with uninspiring candidates.

PRO TIP: Don’t squeze your recruiter for every penny. They’ll think twice before referring the next high-quality candidate to another competitor or well-funded company.

A Nod To Ethics

You need to be competitive. You also live in a community. Getting the balance right can be as simple as being mindful of basic good manners.

The post Four headhunting tips to find top talent appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Meetup.com is an event site where people can join groups and organize meetings. It’s an excellent recruiting tool for active and passive candidates. Recruiters can search Meetup to find, and meet, promising candidates, without having to go to any events. Here’s how: many of Meetup’s groups and attendee lists are public. Recruiters can search those public lists for promising candidates through an ‘x-ray’ boolean search.

Here’s a guide on how to search Meetup.com on Google:

Note that the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) places restrictions on collecting EU candidate data. Please refer to guidance on using social platforms for recruiting EU candidates.

Find groups

Meetup’s search can help you find groups of interest in a specific mile radius from any location. You can also find groups with a basic boolean search, using the ‘site:’ operator:

Meetup.com usually picks up the searcher’s location. If recruiters want to search for groups in other cities, they can add the ‘intitle:’ command:

This boolean search will generate a list of sales meetup groups based in New York. Meetup groups have a main page where you can see the group’s information and their recent activities. You can see all subpages associated with each group on the top of their main page:

If you want your results to include only the main pages of groups, and not sponsors or photos, then you can modify your search with some terms that are almost exclusively found on meetup groups’ main pages. The term ‘recent meetups’ is a good place to start:

Add as many terms as you want to find groups that match all your criteria.

Go through some of the results and choose groups that are more relevant to what you’re looking for. For example, if you’re planning to expand your B2B sales team to cater to larger companies, it’d be worth looking through groups like this one:

Look at each group’s main page. Do they have new members constantly joining? When was their last meetup and do they have more scheduled? Once you identify active groups, you join them to get to know members who may not have much information on their meetup profiles. This is good approach if you plan to recruit for similar positions in the future.

Also, take a look at the side of each group’s page. It’s a great place to find tags that can help you find other relevant meetups:

Find profiles

Now it’s time to look at meetup members’ profiles. There are two ways to search for meetup members on Google:

• Use the ‘site:’ command with members’ page urls
• Do a generic search with exclusive terms

Members’ page URLs

Start by searching Meetup.com for the skills you’re interested in:

Then, click on the “members” tab of the most interesting meetups you find:

Now, you can see the members’ page url. (In this case, it’s https://www.meetup.com/Onshape-Users-Boston/members/) that you can search through with the ‘site:’ operator.

Refine your search to include more specific skills:

This will help you see profiles of the most relevant meetup members. Keep in mind, though, that not all members will include detailed information on their profiles. Try to make as many diversified searches as possible.

Exclusive words

There are some words or phrases that appear most often on meetup member profiles rather than other pages on meetup. These phrases can help refine your search. Examples are “member of”, “interests” and “member since.” Of those three, “member since” is most likely to be exclusive to profile pages, so it’s best to start there.

Here’s how you could use this kind of exclusive word search to find a copywriter in Chicago:

This search strategy can also be used for Twitter an other public social networks.

Workable’s Boolean search cheat sheets provide sample search strings to recruit experienced candidates.

How do I evaluate profiles?

If a group member shows up in your search, it means they’ve mentioned your key terms in their Meetup.com profile. Look at their profile more closely to get a better sense of whether they’d be good fit for the job you’re sourcing for:

• Look at their interests. You will find an “Interests” section in the bottom left corner of every Meetup.com profile page. Members often list interests that aren’t necessarily tied to their profession. These interests could help you figure out whether someone could be a ‘culture add‘ (as opposed to a ‘culture fit’):

• Read their introduction. Many members mention their field of expertise, current employer and professional aspirations in their profile introduction section:

• Check out their answers to group questions. Groups sometimes ask their members optional questions about various topics like why they chose that group, what their expertise is or how many years of experience they have. If you’re lucky, there will be questions about their email and social media contact information. If not, you can use their information to do a Boolean search to find their email.

• Follow them on social. Often, members will choose to share their social accounts on their Meetup.com profile:

• Check out members’ other groups. On the left side of members’ profile pages, you can see a list of the other groups they’ve joined. This is a good indication on their interests and a great way to find other, relevant groups for the position you’re sourcing for.

Related: Ideas for a successful recruiting event

Once you’ve found a person who looks promising, you can send them a message through Meetup.com or their social media profiles. You can also use tools like People Search, a Chrome extension, to qualify the prospect even further before you reach out. People Search scans multiple data sources to create a rich profile, including education, work experience, social profiles and contact details. Here’s how it works:

You can use the information you find through People Search to personalize your outreach. If you’re not sure how to structure your messages to candidates, you could customize one of Workable’s passive candidate email templates to save more time and increase your likelihood of getting a response.

Sourcing on Meetup is one of many ways to find great candidates. Download our complete sourcing guide for free.

The post How to x-ray Meetup.com with boolean search appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Here’s how to build your talent pipeline strategies and foster relationships with passive candidates:

3 Steps of building a talent pipeline

Step 1: Plan ahead

Planning is an important part of your talent pipeline strategy. Here are a few steps to include in this phase:

• Start with employer branding. Companies with a good reputation as employers have a headstart in engaging passive candidates. Here are three ways to build your employer brand:
  • Create a useful and attractive careers page.
  • Pay attention to candidate experience during the hiring process.
  • Invest in employee development and ask employees to share their experiences (e.g. through public videos or blog stories on social media.)
• Get buy-in from stakeholders. Present the benefits of building talent pipelines to executives and clarify the resources you will need to start (e.g. funds to attend recruitment events.) Encourage all employees to refer people for open roles. And meet with managers to discuss their future hiring needs.
• Determine what kind of roles need a pipeline. Having a pipeline makes sense for roles that have high turnover rates (e.g. sales roles.) These positions open frequently and usually require candidates with a specific skillset. Talent pipelines are also useful for hard-to-fill roles that translate into high revenue loss while vacant (e.g. executive roles.) Pipelines help you fill those roles as quickly as possible.
• Consider the balance of internal and external candidates. Hiring from external pipelines helps you enhance company culture, hire for diversity and close organizational skills gaps. But, having a good succession plan in place is also useful to fill roles faster and retain employees. Consult HR to determine which roles could be filled from within.

Step 2: Find passive candidates

Qualified candidates are everywhere, from social media to your internal talent database. Here are some effective sourcing techniques to find and assess candidates for your pipeline:

(To source EU candidates, please refer to guidance on using social media for recruiting and collecting candidate information as per the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR.)

Step 3: Engage candidates

Sourcing candidates for positions that aren’t open yet is tricky. Here are some tips to address this challenge and engage qualified candidates:

• Be honest. In your first contact, let candidates know that you don’t have an immediate opening, but you’re likely to be hiring soon. Say that your company is always looking for talented people and you’d like a few minutes of their time to discuss. Customize a template to send an effective first email.
• Respect their time. Ensure candidates are the ones to drive your communication. Ask them what medium they’d prefer to communicate by (e.g. phone, email or Skype.) Also, ask them what they are currently working on. If they’re in the middle of a big project, let them defer your discussion for when they are more flexible.
• Show genuine interest. Focus your conversations on candidates’ career aspirations. Use People Search to do some research beforehand so you can better navigate these discussions. Explore their motivations (e.g. ask what they like about their current role) and encourage them to ask you about your company. This will help you determine whether they would be a good fit. It will also help you personalize your pitch to them by addressing their long-term goals.
• Let candidates determine how they want to stay in touch. Discuss what the candidate would prefer. Ideas include scheduling regular check-ins, inviting them to events or sharing good content with them. Invite them to reach out to you anytime. Ultimately, let the candidate stay connected with you in a way they feel comfortable with.

The post How to build a passive talent pipeline – Talent pipeline management appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

It was a tough decision in the end, of course, but that now means you have four high-quality candidates that you could consider for another, similar role in your organization.

The benefits of resurfacing past candidates

The value of resurfacing past candidates may be already clear, but let’s quickly walk through those tangible benefits one by one:

1. Candidates are already pre-vetted

The candidates in your system have already been evaluated – especially the finalists – even if it was for another, different job. Your hiring team is already familiar with them – and notes can be shared with new hiring team members. In short, these candidates are already pre-vetted, enabling you and your team to get a head start on evaluating them for a new role.

2. Your time to hire is quicker

Because candidates come pre-vetted, the time it takes from that first application to the first day of the new job will be markedly shorter. You may not even have to post the job ad again – just start reaching out to those past candidates and close the loop on the whole process.

3. It can be a better candidate experience

It’s a great experience for candidates, too. Jobseekers who are contacted for new opportunities with you will be encouraged to know that they won’t have to go through the whole evaluation period again from scratch. That’s very attractive to candidates exploring multiple opportunities or are weary of the job search.

Plus, it’s always nice to know you’re wanted. That’s a powerful message to a candidate.

4. It saves time and money

The recruitment process can be time-consuming and expensive. All the costs associated with posting a job ad and other tangible expenses, combined with the number of hours invested in the process by members of the hiring team, can add up.

You’ve seen our tutorial on how to calculate the ROI of an ATS. Some of those expenses can apply here as well to show the ROI of resurfacing past candidates. There’s a huge amount of time and resources saved by recontacting candidates you’re already familiar with.

5. You know they’re interested

These are candidates who have already gone through the process with you. They’re already more familiar with your company now, and if you’ve communicated your side well, they clearly want to work for you. Otherwise, they wouldn’t apply, right?

The risks of resurfacing past candidates

With every new solution, new challenges arise. There can be risks in reconnecting with past candidates. Let’s go through those risks one by one.

1. Reconnecting can be awkward

It’s just like when you break up with someone – and then you text them later to check in on them and see about going on another date. Awkward, right?

The same applies here. The ego of a rejected candidate may be bruised and they may feel put off by the fact that you’ve just contacted them again for another role.

Fair enough. Put yourself in their shoes. You’d feel like you were the “second choice’ because the other person didn’t work out or something like that. Not good for a candidate experience, and doesn’t bode well for your employer brand.

2. The new job is ‘less’ than the old one

It’s possible that the new opening you’re reaching out to candidates about is at a lower pay grade or requires less experience than the original job they applied for. That’s not a great message to send to a candidate: “You’re not good enough for that role, but perhaps this lower-paid, less interesting job in the same company will be a better fit for you.”

Would you go for an opportunity like that? Probably not.

3. There are data privacy issues

Thanks to social media, outbound marketing efforts, and other developments, data privacy legislation – and awareness – is popping up everywhere. At best, people can be wary and feel invaded when contacted out of the blue. At worst, they may be suspicious as to how you got their contact information and challenge you on that point even publicly. Again, not a good look for your brand.

The best practices of resurfacing past candidates

OK, now that we’ve been through the good and the bad – let’s go to the best practices. How can you do it in a way that wins the best candidates to your team? Let’s start:

1. Preempt the potential awkwardness

Every interaction with a candidate – even though they’re not yet an employee – impacts their impression of you and your employer brand. Everything counts – your timely messaging, your friendly, engaging manner, the time in between stages, setting expectations, the whole bit.

Making a strong positive impression on the candidate may actually increase their willingness to work for you. If you end up selecting someone else for the job, the candidate may be disappointed but responsive when you tell them you’d love to keep their resume on file for potential future openings with the company.

2. Clarify that it’s not a “rejection”

No one likes to feel rejected – whether you’re turning down an expression of affection, a project proposal or, of course, a job application. It may be a candidate market right now, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t sting when you tell a candidate, “Sorry – you were great, but we went with this other person instead.”

It does matter how you do it. You can outright reject the candidate, and they’ll walk away in a huff, and you’ll never hear from them again. Or you can turn it around and explain that they aren’t actually being rejected – it’s just that they weren’t the right fit for this specific role that you’re hiring for. But you would love to keep their application on file because your company will be opening up more roles very soon (see above).

Related: Learn how to reject candidates without burning bridges

3. Allow candidates to self-select in

When you’re hiring at scale or turning away dozens of candidates in the screening/first interview stage, you may not have the time or opportunity to engage each and every one of them using the above two tips.

That’s where you can include an option in the application form giving candidates the opportunity to self-select in for future opportunities with you. This can be a checkbox, a verbal agreement, or something else. Note that this may be a requirement in some jurisdictions due to privacy laws.

4. Look at notes about candidates

A good practice for members of the hiring team is to keep clear and consistent notes on candidates after an interaction with a candidate be it an email, interview, screening call, or another form of communication. If those notes are comprehensive, that’s where you should look to get a good understanding of whether candidates are interested in a specific role with your company or in being part of your team overall.

Read more: How to document interview feedback for your hiring team

Maybe you’re looking to fill a similar role (i.e. another opening in sales) or you’re hiring in another area altogether – one way or another, these notes will help you hugely in predicting their interest in pursuing a new opportunity with you.

5. Engage only the top-shelf candidates

Finally, you don’t want to give false hope to those middle-of-the-road candidates who probably wouldn’t have gotten the job anyway. If you do that, you’re wasting their time – and yours as well. That leads to a poor experience and could reflect badly on your brand as an employer.

It’s better to only reach out to those star candidates who you sincerely think will be great fits for the new role. When you’re looking at those resurfaced candidates, ask yourself if you’d hire them on the spot. If the answer is yes, reach out to them. If it’s no, then move on.

6. Set clear messaging and expectations

This best practice is probably the most important. You don’t ever want to send a clumsy message to a jilted candidate and leave them with even more questions than answers. It’s worse if you skip over the reality that you rejected them the first time around.

Instead, be clear in your language so the candidate has all the information they want and need. In a friendly email, you can cover the following points, for instance:

• Your previous relationship – include quick details about the previous job, who they communicated with, and the conclusion of that process
• Why you’re reaching out to them now – include information about how they opted in for future opportunities and that you have a new role they might be interested in
• Details about the new job – include job description, who the position reports to/works with, salary (if applicable), and other related details
• Why they’re a great fit for the new role – this one is especially important. This is also your opportunity to address issues around lower pay grades, different responsibilities, and other question marks the candidate might have.
• A timeline – ideally with preset dates for interviews and a decision.

Here’s an example of how all of that can be addressed in a short, punchy email:

“Hi [candidate], I hope this email finds you well. We talked with you previously about job X, and you expressed your interest in staying in touch.

While we ended up going with another candidate for job X, we’d love to meet with you again about job Y in our company. I’ll be honest – it’s at a lower pay grade/has different responsibilities than job X, but there are elements of this new job that we think you’d be very excited about.

The job description is attached, and the role will report directly to our CMO. We’re looking to make a hiring decision by Thursday, January 10.

If you’re interested – and we hope you are – please book a time with me at [calendar link].”

Remember, you’re both professionals talking about a business arrangement in the end. You’re both mutually interested parties; if you go about it right, you’ll attract those candidates and hopefully win them over in quick time.

Getting candidates for a job is no longer as simple as posting a job ad. You can now market your company and role to them, you can source new candidates, and you can get back in touch with candidates who are already back in your system.

The post Starved for workers? Resurface your top candidates from past job openings appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Why source candidates on job portals?

• Job boards offer huge candidate pools. Job portals are not just a place where employers post their job vacancies. Candidates upload their resumes so that recruiters can easily find them. A resume database works well for people who aren’t actively looking for a job but who are open to new opportunities.

• Reduce screening time. When recruiters post a job ad, they get the chance to determine requirements and exclusion factors. This way, only matching profiles reach their inbox. Instead of looking through piles of resumes to discover qualified candidates, recruiters evaluate resumes that meet their minimum requirements.

• Meet job seekers half-way. Job boards offer candidates and recruiters the same opportunities to find each other. Recruiters receive qualified resumes and candidates get notified about job openings that match their preferences. Automatic notifications make the resume search easier, for everybody.

• Let recruiters focus on their desired audience. Every job board has a different niche – based on location, industry, experience level, etc. Recruiters can strategically choose specialized, boutique job boards to bring them closer to the people they want to hire.

How to source candidates on job boards

Search resumes online

Although their traditional role is to post job ads, job boards also serve as resume databases by encouraging candidates to upload their resumes. Instead of (or, in addition to) posting a job opening and waiting for incoming resumes, you could search through the portal’s database to find matching candidates. Set specific criteria to narrow down your resume search: by location, skills, education level and experience.

Some of the biggest job boards, like Indeed and Nexxt (Beyond) use niche technology to provide employers with qualified resumes. More than that, they allow recruiters to search resumes online using multiple filters to instantly find candidates, without posting a job ad. You could also set up an email alert or sync with your ATS to get notifications for matching profiles.

Use sourcing tools

Many sites build sourcing-specific tools for recruiters. Monster’s Talentbin is a large resume database where you could choose from millions of profiles for each position. Along the same lines, CareerBuilder’s resume database uses boolean logic to provide accurate results that decrease your search time.

Find relevant job portals for your role

To minimize time spent sourcing candidates through job portals, you need to look in the right places. We work remotely brings remote workers and employers (from all kinds of industries) closer together, whereas Mogul is the place to attract more women for tech roles. If you’re offering paid internships, check out Way Up. You might find local job portals useful when you want to search in a limited geographical area. For Greek candidates, you should check out Skywalker, in Ireland, use IrishJobs. Job seekers in Australia prefer Seek and Cadremploi publishes job opportunities in France. It’s best to research and test different portals, according to your specific needs. You should experiment and track your results to identify those sources that bring the most qualified candidates.

Consider non-traditional job boards

Many sites serve as a de-facto job board, without being designed as one. Their advantage is that they gather people interested in a specific area and allow recruiters to post their job openings and look through resumes. This is very useful to source candidates with a specific skill set. For example, Dribbble and Behance are the most common places for designers not only to hang out, but also to upload their resumes and share their work. Github and StackOverflow have created job portals where recruiters can get in touch with developers. LinkedIn also falls in the same category, as a professional social network where employers post their job ads and connect with potential candidates.

Put your company on the map

Effective sourcing also means that candidates can easily find companies that are hiring. Job portals offer spaces for advertising: they usually put special banners for companies with current openings. In addition, they highlight job postings from premium accounts. On Glassdoor, candidates find both job ads and information about companies they consider applying to. You should aim to promote your company through Glassdoor to boost your employer brand. Eventually, you’ll encourage more candidates to consider your job opportunities.

See how you can post to Multiple job boards with ease.

List of job boards for sourcing candidates:

There is a large pool of job boards to post your vacancies and search for candidates. What works for you is a matter of what you’re looking for. Also, keep each site’s fee policy in mind. There are free and paid job boards (with premium job posts and featured ads.) Some websites also offer a pay per applicant option, meaning you’re only charged when you receive an application. Most job boards require a subscription to give you full access to their resume database. Here’s a list of the most popular:

How to improve your presence on job boards

1. Choose the right keywords. Keep in mind that job seekers mightn’t search in every job board you’re posting on. Sometimes, it’s easier for them to just Google the role they’re interested in. Use keywords that people are more likely to search for: A ‘sales superstar‘ may sound exciting, but it won’t appear in a job seeker’s results for ‘sales executive’ or ‘sales associate.’
2. Craft engaging job ads. Let’s say that people who had previously subscribed to a job portal receive an email about a new job opening, but aren’t looking for a new job anymore. What would make them consider your opportunity? An attractive and informative job ad will. Even if they’re not interested in a new job anymore, they may share your job ad with other strong candidates.
3. Keep your information up-to-date. You don’t want to mislead your candidates into thinking you have job vacancies when you actually don’t. It’s best to create an impact with a new job ad for each new job opportunity at your company. To help build your pipeline, craft a ‘future opportunities’ job ad to encourage people to send in their resumes. You could also include what type of roles you’re usually hiring for and general characteristics you want your team members to share.

Download our complete sourcing guide to discover more sourcing methods.

The post How to source candidates on job boards and resume databases appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

• 73% of candidates are passively looking
• Recruitment emails have an open rate of 21.14%
• 33% of recipients open emails based on the subject line

Based on these numbers, we can see that passive job seekers need more than uninspiring cold emails to make them check out a new job profile and ultimately, apply for that job.

We’ll go through an eight-step process to give you enough ammunition to turn run-of-the-mill emails into high-converting ones.

1. Create an email copy outline
2. Write compelling subject lines
3. Find the candidate’s info & research their background
4. Personalize your outreach
5. Keep your email brief and on point
6. Include a clear CTA
7. Utilize the power of email signature
8. Establish a follow-up strategy

1. Create an email copy outline

To start off, you need to get your email outline right. Cold emails are by design, notorious for cookie-cutter outlines. And this is where most companies fail to attract the right talent. Your cold emails need to be precise, relevant, and unique. One way to write a good email is to know how not to write it. Take this email for example:

Stack Overflow unearthed this cold email that’s about everything a recruiter shouldn’t send to a cold candidate. It’s not addressed to anyone in particular, it doesn’t show the value the roles provide, it uses a long list of skills as the body, and it ends with a weak CTA. It’s hard to impress job seekers with emails crafted as poorly as this one.

While creating an outline for email, it is important to have fleshed-out answers to these questions:

• Who is this email for?
• What is the purpose/goal of sending the email?
• Do the emails need attachments?
• What writing tone should be used?
• What is the best CTA and where should it be placed?
• How to start/end the emails?

The purpose of the outline is to allow companies to automate and scale recruitment strategies. But it should still leave enough room to improvise the copy depending on context and the information available.

A good example should look like this:

The email quickly hooks the candidate with a relatable experience and goes on to explain all the information relevant to the job. The email body is laser-sharp and ends with a good CTA.

2. Write compelling subject lines

Most people only look at the subject lines of the emails to decide whether to delete or open them. Job seekers are no different.
It’s not uncommon for active and passive job seekers to receive hundreds of recruitment emails each day. The only way they can keep the inbox tidy is by deleting the emails that don’t add value to their lives.

When you’re writing a subject line, put yourself in the recipient’s shoes and see what lines you wouldn’t click at all. Take this line for example:

A surprise career opportunity that’ll change your life. Check right now!

Bombastic, misleading, and long sentences are precisely the things you need to avoid when it comes to writing cold emails. It’s important to spend a good bit of time and effort ironing out the subject line. In general, it has to be short, ideally 4-6 words, punchy, and loaded with value.

Great recruitment subject lines should look more like these:

• UX Writer position open at [company name]
• [Company name] is looking for Product Managers
• Data Engineer position available in Vancouver, CA

Along with perfecting the subject line, you should also write a preheader text that provides more information about the email. A lot of recruiters miss the free space so this should be your opportunity to stand out.

3. Find the candidate’s info & research their background

Research plays a key part in practically every aspect of marketing. Recruitment in 2021 can be made better by infusing marketing elements to cater to the right talent pool.

It’s not just the job seekers who have to find the hiring manager’s email address. Recruiters must also deeply research the candidates and go over the information that might be useful for the job. This can be previous roles and companies, qualifications, and career goals. LinkedIn is where talented professionals discuss jobs, careers, and personal lives. You can make connections and even join LinkedIn groups to see what your ideal candidates are up to. LinkedIn InMails are a great way to warm up cold candidates but the sheer volume of undercooked and spam messages by recruiters often drive professionals off the platform.

LinkedIn, however, is not the only option. Techies are available in GitHub and Stack Overflow, writers are sharing ideas in Medium, designers are using Pinterest and Instagram to showcase their art. Social media channels and even portfolio websites are goldmines of information that you can use in your outreach campaign.

Apart from social media and portfolio websites, there’s another channel for effective communication – emails. But it’s not always easy to find the correct email addresses of candidates. With a tool like Hunter’s Email Finder, recruiters find the right people faster.

But people often change jobs and forget to update their email addresses. They might even stop checking their old inbox. That’s why you also need to verify email addresses to make sure you’re not emailing inactive addresses. An email list full of irrelevant addresses will increase your bounce rate, and drag down your deliverability and reputation score.

4. Personalize your outreach

Now that you have enough information about your targeted candidates, it’s time to put the knowledge into action. Approach your recruitment emails the way you write a cold pitch.

Candidates (and humans in general) love to be seen. Always address them by their name at the start of the email and immediately establish a personal connection to show what’s in it for them.

Email personalization is critical in outreach campaigns. A personalized email template should look like this example from Stack Overflow:

It’s a detailed cold email that gives all the information the recipient needs to make a decision. The friendly tone also goes perfectly with the context and the job profile in the discussion.

There’s proof in the pudding too – Boston-based full stack developer Mark Bates talked about the importance of personal connection when reaching out to tech candidates:

“I want to be talked to directly as a person,” Mark said. “Show me that you know who I am and you know the things that I do. And you can tell me in that initial contact why I would make a huge difference at your company.”

5. Keep your email brief and on point

The previous email is a good example of a personalized copy. Coupled with a solid subject line, it should clock good responses from job seekers. But it’s not just the personal connection that sealed the deal. The email is easy to read, offers only the relevant information, and more importantly, tells the candidate what to do after reading the email.

Depending on their career trajectory and position, job seekers either want enriching opportunities, financial benefits, or both. The email offers all these details.

Workload: I’m hiring another mobile engineer to join us here at PuppyHomeTech.

Salary: We offer better pay than any startup in NY.

Process: Our interview only takes one day. We move quickly and if we decide to make an offer, you’ll receive it in 24 hours.

The sender shouldn’t also drag recruitment emails too long with unrelated information. Job applications are often lengthy. As a result, 60% of job seekers give up filling up applications midway. This pattern is true for cold emails as well. Excess information in recruitment emails makes it hard to find the important parts for busy professionals.

That’s why recruiters should distill it down to a few key points and drive home the importance of the email. You can embed graphics or a video on email banners to showcase company culture and provide a bit more details about the role without cluttering the email body.

6. Include a clear CTA

Take a look at this email:

Dear candidate,

We are [company name], a fast-paced company with global footprints. We’re looking for data analysts and you fit our description. Please click on the link below to fill the form.

About us: We’re [ a bit more details about the company]

If you’re interested in the opportunity, please reply to this email so that we can schedule a call.
Thanks!

[Email Signature]

Apart from being vague, the email also confuses the recipient. When you’re cold-emailing candidates, you must remember that the person doesn’t know you, the company, or the role yet. The email will give all the necessary information for the first time, and the information must flow naturally.

This email has two calls to action. One asking to fill up an online form, the other asking to schedule a call. Contradictory or multiple CTAs are confusing and it shows that you haven’t done your homework. Candidates are less likely to go ahead when the lack of effort is clearly visible from the recruiter’s end.

That’s why it’s important to stick to a single CTA. If you have a separate job board that you want them to apply for, only add that link. If you want them to directly reply to your email, mention only that.

One CTA shows your clarity of thought and helps candidates navigate through the next process.

Especially, look at those last two questions – straight and to the point in a way that makes it easy for the candidate to respond. This recruiting email not only sticks to a clear CTA but also goes ahead a step further to offer more information about the call.

7. Utilize the power of email signature

Email signature in a recruitment email tells a lot in a short space. Including an official signature is important because:

• Email signature offers a name that can be searched online by the candidate to verify legitimacy. It instantly creates reliability and is far better than using an unidentifiable sales rep persona.
• An email signature can be used to link company vision and other details. Candidates can check the links to know more about the role, and company culture.
• A huge number of emails go to the spam folder every day and recruitment emails are also part of it. Including an official email signature is one way to avoid getting flagged for spam by the recipient

A good email signature should look like this:

8. Establish a follow-up strategy

Far too many recruiters miss out on talent after not getting a reply the first time. Professionals are busy and it’s easy to miss an email. Cold emails are not expected to generate a 100% response rate but they can be seen as a part of the warm-up process to fetch a response from the candidate later. Ideally, you’ll want to follow up with 3-4 emails before accepting the fact that the candidate is not interested in the opportunity.

To write compelling follow-up emails, you need to add value, lead with the previous email and keep the copy short.

• A follow-up email that leads with the previous email:

• A follow-up email that’s short:

• And one last follow-up email:

Wrapping up

Most recruitment cold emails are uninspiring and impersonal, which actually gives you the opportunity to stand out and attract ideal candidates with a well-thought-out cold email strategy. By following the 8-step process, you’ll be able to craft cold emails that job seekers love to read and respond to.

Irina Maltseva is Head of Marketing at Hunter. She enjoys working on inbound and product marketing strategies. In her spare time, she entertains her cat Persie and collects airline miles.

The post 8 tips for writing outstanding cold recruitment emails that convert – with templates appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

If you’re a recruiter, the most effective way to source good job candidates on Google is to incorporate Boolean search operators into your search engine sourcing strategy.

Skip the Boolean and jump straight to the results. Workable is the fastest, most effective way to find email addresses, resumes, social and professional profiles.

Boolean search basics

Based on George Boole’s mathematical theory in which all variables are either ‘true’ or ‘false’, Boolean search on Google is one of the best sourcing tools for recruiters. The definition of Boolean search is that it’s a type of search that allows users to combine keywords with operators such as AND, NOT and OR to produce more relevant results.

Here are the basic operators for Boolean search strings for recruiters:

AND

When you want to include two (or more) criteria in your search, the operator AND narrows down your search. For example, a Boolean search string for recruiting Android developers should include ‘developer AND android’. This will produce results that include both keywords.

OR

The OR operator, on the other hand, allows us to expand our Boolean search results. People might use different words to say the same thing. OR is particularly useful for synonyms, like ‘bank OR finance OR financial.’

NOT

The NOT operator excludes unwanted terms from your Google sourcing search. Instead of NOT, you could also use the minus symbol followed by your unwanted term without leaving a space (e.g. ‘NOT recruiter’ or ‘-recruiter.’)

Brackets ()

You can use brackets to group multiple search strings and set your priorities. This will come in handy, as most candidate searches are complex and combine different keywords. For example, ‘(developer OR designer) AND Java’ indicates that Java knowledge is a must-have both for developers and designers. But, in a ‘designer OR (developer AND Java)’ search, Java knowledge is important only for the developers you’re looking for – not the designers.

Quotation marks “ “

If you want Google to consider the phrase you’re searching for as a complete phrase, you should put it in quotation marks. For example, leaving a blank space between ‘customer’ and ‘service’ will provide pages that contain both of the words ‘customer’ and ‘service,’ but not necessarily together. You should type “customer service” to get more relevant results when sourcing passive candidates.

Related: How to source passive candidates

Boolean search operators list

How recruiters can use boolean commands

Using Google Boolean search strings for recruiters will improve your search results and eventually get you closer to your potential candidates. Crafting effective commands can be a little tricky, at first, if you’re not familiar with Boolean logic. Here’s a short guide to help you with common searches.

‘site:’

A site: search is also known as an x-ray search. You can search through a specific site for candidates with your desired skill set or any additional details that are a top priority for you. The key here is to look in the right place. LinkedIn is useful to search for all kinds of professionals, but for more targeted searches you should crawl niche websites instead.

AND, OR

When searching, you need to think from your ideal candidate’s point of view. Let’s say you want to hire a Software developer. If you only look for ‘Web developer’ you’ll probably miss a lot of good profiles that use a different title, like ‘Software developer’ or ‘Web programmer.’ You could combine AND and OR commands to search multiple terms.

The wild card (*)

You could use an asterisk (*) to get more results for the term you’re looking for. For example, account* will provide you with results both for accounting and accountant. Let’s say you’re looking for writers or counselors with an expertise in business investment. Medium is a good place to start looking; you just need to search for posts included related terms.

If you’re searching specific job titles on LinkedIn, the asterisk could help you create a shorter string. For example, you could type ‘administr*’ instead of ‘administrative OR administrator OR administration’ and get the same results. Likewise, ‘recruit*’ is a simpler alternative of ‘recruiter OR recruiting OR recruitment.’

‘intitle:’ or ‘inurl:’

Most people name their resume files using the word ‘resume.’ So, if you want to search Google for candidates’ resumes, it’s best to look for pages that include this word in their title or URL.

The minus sign (-)

If you’re wondering why we used the minus sign (-) in the previous example, the answer is simple: to narrow down our results. Once you play around with Boolean search, you’ll realize that you need to exclude some results to get what you’re looking for. It’s usually helpful to get rid of ‘jobs’, ‘templates’ and ‘examples’ when you’re looking for candidate’s resumes.

Tutorial: How to source on Google+

‘filetype:’

Google offers you the chance to search the web for files, which is useful if you want to get access to online resumes or portfolios.

Zip codes

It’s best to localize your search, if you’re only looking for candidates from a specific area. For example, if your target zip code is ‘02210’ in Boston MA, with the use of an application you can track all zip codes in a 20-mile radius. Then, add the zip code range (from low to high) to your Boolean search to narrow down your results. It’s important to include the area as well, so that Google understands your numbers are zip codes.

Want to source more candidates on Google? Learn how to get your job listings featured on Google for Jobs.

How to refine your boolean search

Now that you are familiar with the basics of Boolean logic, it’s best to experiment and see what works for your sourcing needs. You could try combining strings to refine your search and get more accurate results.

Let’s say you’re looking for a software engineer. If you type ‘Software engineer’ into Google, you’ll immediately see why you need to be more specific. ‘Software engineer in New York’ won’t do the trick, either. This video can give you a better idea of how Google ‘understands’ your searches.

It’s best to think of Google as your stepping stone to finding interesting places and people. For example, if you Google something like ‘portfolios graphic designers New York’ you’ll come up with lists of qualified designers on Behance. You’ll also discover other sites where you could search for candidates. To narrow down your search even more you could ‘x-ray’ these sites or include a type of file (like ‘pdf’) in your search query to help you find examples of designers’ work.

Google search strings come in handy for recruiters if you want to track a particular skill set, especially for hard-to-fill roles. You could look for professionals who’ve attended relevant seminars or taken courses in a similar area of expertise. For example ‘attendees sasstock 2016.’

You can also use Boolean search to find Twitter users that engage with a certain hashtag or community. You can extend your searches to find your candidates’ email addresses.

Related: How to source on job boards and resume databases

Be careful of false positive results

Even if you’ve crafted the perfect boolean search string, take a moment to double-check your results. A quick search can lead to false positive results. For example, if you’re looking for a Marketing Manager in Boston, you’ll probably find professionals who don’t actually live in Boston, but could have studied there, lived in the past or simply wrote a blog post about marketing trends in Boston companies.

To get the most out of Google, invest some time, hone your research skills and don’t rely on the first results that pop up. Taking the time to refine your boolean search strategy will make your search for candidates a whole lot easier.

Workable’s Boolean search cheat sheets provide sample search strings to recruit experienced candidates.

The post Sourcing on Google: Boolean search for recruiters appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

• What is sourcing?
• What is the difference between sourcing and recruiting?
• How does sourcing affect recruiting?
• What is a Sourcing Specialist?
• What is social sourcing?
• What are some of the most effective social sourcing tools?
• What are the most effective platforms for social sourcing?
• What is Boolean search?
• What are the best methods for sourcing candidates?
• What is a passive candidate?
• What are the best approaches for sourcing passive candidates?
• How much time should I spend on sourcing?
• Should I ask a passive candidate for a resume before a phone screen?
• How can I make sourcing/recruiting a priority for hiring managers?
• How do I source entry-level candidates?
• How do I source executive-level candidates?
• How do I budget my sourcing?

What is sourcing?

Candidate sourcing is the proactive search for potential hires to fill current and future job openings. To source candidates, recruiters:

• Collect valuable candidate information, like resumes and work samples.
• Pre-screen candidates with skills that match the roles they’re recruiting for.
• Contact candidates to build relationships and inform them about job openings.
• Build long-term relationships with potential hires.

What is the difference between sourcing and recruiting?

Sourcing refers to the process of searching for, identifying and contacting potential candidates. Recruiting kicks in after sourcing, and includes the HR processes of screening, interviewing and evaluating applicants.

In some HR departments, recruiters handle sourcing as the first step of the recruiting process. In others, professionals known as sourcers are responsible for finding qualified candidates and are not involved in other phases of the recruitment cycle.

Both recruiting and sourcing fall under the umbrella of HR. For more on the differences between HR disciplines, read our FAQ here.

How does sourcing affect recruiting?

Sourcing is an integral part of a company’s recruiting strategy. Recruiters who source candidates:

• Reduce time-to-fill, as they have already conducted an initial screening of candidates’ skills.
• Build talent pipelines (databases of engaged candidates) to cover current and future hiring needs.
• Position themselves to meet long-term recruiting goals (e.g. attracting and hiring more candidates to increase diversity.)

What is a Sourcing Specialist?

Sourcing Specialists, also known as Sourcers, are HR professionals who identify and engage potential candidates for current and future hiring needs.

Sourcing Specialists:

• Identify future hiring needs
• Establish effective sourcing strategies
• Reach out to potential candidates
• Develop talent pipelines for various roles
• Research and try new sourcing tools and platforms
• Measure the results of all sourcing methods

What is social sourcing?

Social sourcing is the practice of using social networks (e.g. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter) to identify, attract and contact potential candidates.

Sourcers use social media to:

• Collect data, like work samples, resumes and contact details of potential candidates.
• Reach out to potential candidates to build talent pipelines for future hiring needs.
• Contact qualified people and inform them about relevant job openings.
• Advertise their company’s open roles and build their employer brand.

What are some of the most effective social sourcing tools?

Social sourcing tools help sourcing specialists and recruiters narrow their search and identify qualified candidates quicker. Here are some social media tools and platforms that will streamline your sourcing:

• LinkedIn is a social network where professionals share their career history, advertise accomplishments and interact with industry experts. A LinkedIn Recruiter license lets you search profiles and send personal messages (InMails) to potential candidates.
• Indeed, one of the world’s largest job boards, also hosts a database with more than 90 million resumes. Indeed’s advanced search option helps you scan resumes based on criteria like location and job title.
• Facebook users are potential candidates. They research employers, look for job opportunities and apply for jobs through the world’s most popular social network. Use paid job ads and Facebook groups to help you find your desired future hires.
• Twitter offers various tools, like Search, Lists and Chat that help recruiters source candidates. Get the most out of your sourcing efforts by being active on Twitter. Engage in Twitter discussions, advertise conferences you sponsor and follow industry-related hashtags.
• People Search by Workable is a Chrome extension that works in tandem with social media sites. Find any candidate profile on Facebook, Twitter, GitHub, Dribbble and Behance and activate the extension. People Search will build complete profiles, often including an email address, resume and other social networks in which your prospect is active.

(To source EU candidates, please refer to this guidance on using social media for recruiting under the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR.)

While not specifically sourcing tools, these websites can help you find specific kinds of candidates:

What are the most effective platforms for social sourcing?

The most effective platforms for social sourcing are LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. If you want to expand your sourcing efforts to non-traditional channels, consider the following social platforms:

• Slack is a group communication tool for people with common professional interests. Use Slack to source candidates by joining channels relevant to your industry and striking up conversations with passive candidates in a more casual setting.
• Meetup is a website that facilitates meetings and groups for people with common interests. Boolean search helps you x-ray meetup.com to find candidate profiles relevant to your roles.
• Reddit is an online forum where members talk about a range of topics. Though a non-traditional sourcing solution, Reddit’s communities (called subreddits) can be great places to post job ads and talk to potential candidates.
• Snapchat is popular for its ephemeral interface, which includes disappearing messages. It is used largely by younger people (e.g. entry-level employees and interns.) Use its unique features (special effects and stickers) to create job ads and applications that grab potential candidates’ attention.
• Google+ is Google’s social network where members showcase their background and interests. On Google+ you can join communities, find candidates’ online portfolios and resumes and contact them directly (though Google+’s direct Gmail integration.)

(To source EU candidates, please refer to this guidance on using social media for recruiting under the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR.)

What is Boolean search?

Boolean search is a type of search that combines desired keywords with operators such as AND, NOT and OR to produce relevant results. It’s based on George Boole’s mathematical theory in which all variables are either true or false. You can run Boolean searches on many search engines, including Google.

Recruiters customize Boolean searches to scour the web for relevant profiles of niche candidates. Here’s a basic breakdown of how to use Boolean operators:

Here’s an example Boolean search string to look for UI Designers with experience in Illustrator or Sketch:

(intitle:resume OR intitle:cv) “UI designer” (Illustrator OR Sketch) -job -jobs -sample -examples

Skip Boolean searches and jump straight to the results. People Search from Workable is the fastest, most effective way to find email addresses, resumes, social and professional profiles.

What are the best methods for sourcing candidates?

Use a combination of online and offline methods to source candidates effectively. Here are the best ways to source qualified candidates for your open roles:

• Use social media. People use social platforms to advertise professional achievements and share samples of their work (e.g. portfolios.) Browse networks like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to identify and interact with potential candidates.
  • LinkedIn: Join professional groups and network with potential candidates.
  • Facebook: Use the Jobs tab feature and paid ads to post your job openings.
  • Twitter: Make lists of potential candidates and follow industry-relevant hashtags.

(To source EU candidates on social media, please refer to this guidance to ensure compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR.)

• Craft Boolean search commands. Boolean logic helps you target your searches to fewer, more relevant results. Use Boolean strings to search for candidates by specific criteria, like location, email address and phone number.
  • Use Boolean search to x-ray profiles on social sites, like Meetup, without ever attending an event.
• Ask for referrals. Involve your current employees in your sourcing efforts by encouraging them to refer candidates who qualify for your open roles. Employee referrals are known to reduce time-to-hire and increase retention rates.
  • Build an employee referral program that works by offering a mix of monetary and non-monetary incentives.
• Join and host events. Recruitment events help you meet potential candidates in person. Participate in job fairs or host your own open house event to invite potential candidates to your office, where they can meet with your teams.
  • Consider attending events related to the industry you’re recruiting for through sites like Meetup or Eventbrite (check to see if these events are recruiter-friendly, first.)
• Build talent pipelines. Past candidates might be interested in future job openings. Use an ATS to stay in touch and keep their data organized (e.g. resumes, assignments and interview evaluations).
  • An ATS can also help you snooze candidates or set reminders to contact past candidates again.
• Browse resume databases and portfolio sites. Job boards give employers access to candidates’ profiles, including resumes, career histories and contact details. Also, if you’re hiring for creative roles look for portfolios and work samples on sites like:
  • Behance for designers.
  • Medium for writers.
  • Github for developers.
• Network through niche platforms. Although not built for recruiting, social platforms like Quora, Slack and Reddit encourage communication among people with common interests. Be an active member of these communities. Engage in conversations, identify passive candidates and share your job ads.
  • Quora: Search for people who provide detailed answers to job-related questions.
  • Slack: Join Slack communities to meet potential candidates from a specific field in a less formal setting.
  • Reddit: Post your job ads and interact with potential candidates in Reddit’s subreddit communities.
• Improve your employer brand. The easiest way to persuade candidates to join your company, it to be a good employer. Offer meaningful perks, update your careers page and spotlight your employees. A strong employer brand prompts candidates to consider a job opportunity when you reach out to them.
  • Start with Glassdoor. Work with HR to fill out your company description and respond to reviews from employees.

What is a passive candidate?

A passive candidate is a common recruitment term to describe people who are:

• Employed and not actively seeking a new job opportunity
• Employed and willing to hear about new job opportunities
• Employed/unemployed and haven’t applied for a role at your company

Most of the employed workforce is interested in learning about a new job opportunity, so it’s worthwhile to source passive candidates.

What are the best approaches for sourcing passive candidates?

Passive candidates refer to people who aren’t actively looking for a new job opportunity. Since they don’t apply through your regular recruiting process, you will have to grab their attention. Here’s how:

Personalize your communication

Each sourcing email you send should contain information specific to your recipient. For example, include a professional achievement of theirs that caught your eye:

• e.g. “Our engineering team mentioned that your contribution to X Github project was impressive.”

Or, briefly explain how their skillset aligns with your business goals:

• e.g. “I’ve noticed how well you interact with customers on social media. We’re currently looking for a Brand Ambassador to communicate online with our clients.”

Network before you need to

People are more likely to respond to your emails or calls if you have met them in-person. Invest some time to build relationships with potential candidates before you need them. For example:

• Attend or host events to network with people within your industry.
• Join forums and social platforms (like Twitter and Slack) to converse with potential future candidates.
• Stay in touch with past applicants to keep them warm for new job opportunities.

Tap mutual connections

People who aren’t actively looking for a new job are more likely to consider one if they hear about it from a friend. Consider asking your employees to refer their friends. Here are some steps to get you started:

• Start with drafting an employee referral policy.
• Implement an employee referral bonus program to motivate and reward employees for their help.
• Evaluate your referral program bonus structure to see what works for you.

How much time should I spend on sourcing?

As a rule of thumb, spend at least 30 minutes per week sourcing passive candidates and building your talent pipelines. During that time, browse social networks, engage with people online and craft sourcing emails to potential candidates.

Adjust your sourcing time based on the positions you’re recruiting for and your familiarity with each position. For example, it will take longer to identify and hire qualified candidates for hard-to-fill roles. Likewise, if you’re hiring for a new position, give yourself some time to research the skills required for the role and the best places to look for qualified people.

Should I ask a passive candidate for a resume before a phone screen?

No. First, contact passive candidates to introduce yourself and inform them about the job opening. Once they’ve expressed interest in the position, ask for a resume to share with your client or hiring manager.

Asking for a resume right away sets off red flags because it:

• Sounds suspicious. Candidates are hesitant to share personal data and career history when they don’t know enough about you or the role you’re hiring for.
• Shows you haven’t done your research. Passive candidates may question why you contacted them if you didn’t already know about their work experience.
• Can be time-consuming. Candidates may not want to take time to update their resumes if they aren’t currently looking for a new job.

Also, for some roles, resumes aren’t the most important qualification criterion. For example, if you want to hire a designer, a portfolio of their previous work will tell you more about their skills than a resume will.

A rule of thumb: Always gather as much information about potential candidates as possible before contacting them. You can find resumes and other social profile information with targeted Boolean searches on LinkedIn and on resume databases.

How can I make sourcing/recruiting a priority for hiring managers?

Recruiters and hiring managers are partners in the hiring process. Often, when there’s an open role, managers give recruiters their requirements and expect a shortlist of qualified candidates in return.

Here’s how to make sourcing and recruiting a priority for hiring managers:

• Make your recruiting process transparent. Let hiring managers know about all the phases of your process, including deadlines. Ask them to step in when necessary (e.g. to evaluate assignments.)
• Ask for hiring managers’ feedback. When you have second thoughts about candidates or requirements, ask your hiring managers for their input. Managers can spot red flags early on and save both of you valuable time.
• Communicate early and often. To build healthy relationships with hiring managers, make sure you’re available. Update them on hiring statuses (e.g. how many applications you received, how many phone screens you performed) and be ready to answer their questions.
• Encourage hiring managers to share job ads. Candidates want to picture themselves at your company before accepting a job offer. Knowing who their future manager is helps them with that. Offer to help managers to write engaging social posts to attract potential candidates.

How do I source entry-level candidates?

Here’s how to hone your search to source entry-level employees:

• Write job ads that focus on skills. Entry-level candidates typically lack professional experience in your industry. Focus your job ad on the skills you need for the role, instead of years of experience.
• Use social media to engage candidates. Candidates who don’t have a lot of formal work experience may use social media to share samples of the kind of work they would like to do. Engage with these candidates on platforms like:
  • Github, where developers upload programs
  • Behance, where designers create portfolios
• Attend and host career events. Job fairs will help you connect with candidates from diverse backgrounds. Consider hosting an open house event to bring potential candidates to your offices.
• Implement internship programs. Internships help you collaborate with junior employees and evaluate their skills on the job. You can then offer entry-level positions to your most qualified interns.

How do I source executive-level candidates?

Sourcing executive-level candidates means looking for potential hires who are both experts in their field and have solid leadership skills.

Here’s how to refine your sourcing techniques to find candidates for senior and executive-level roles:

• Ask for referrals. Referred candidates are usually hired faster and stay at their jobs longer. Considering that senior-level positions have a higher cost-per-hire compared to entry-level roles, employee referrals are a budget-effective solution to recruit executive candidates.
• Implement social sourcing strategies. Senior and executive-level candidates mightn’t be actively looking for a new job opportunity, but they may be active social network users. Join professional online groups and start building a network with potential candidates.
• Praise their accomplishments. Executive-level employees are prized for their expertise, so flatter them by studying their strengths. Personalize your communication to explain how their professional success will contribute to your business goals.
• Build your employer brand. To convince executive-level candidates to join your company, establish a strong employer brand. Offer meaningful perks and benefit packages, like stock options, if possible.

How do I budget my sourcing?

Well-budgeted sourcing drives an effective recruitment process. Here’s a guide on how to budget your sourcing:

Step 1: Calculate your hiring needs and turnover rates

First, determine how many positions you need to hire for each year (due to either new openings or separations). This will give you an overview of your sourcing needs and costs. For example, if you don’t plan to hire new employees next year and you have high retention rates, you might want to reduce your sourcing budget for that year.

To calculate your hiring needs and turnover rates:

• Talk to hiring managers to estimate the number of new hires they predict on their teams.
• Calculate the number of planned separations (e.g. retirements.)
• Forecast separations based on your company’s turnover rates.

Step 2: Calculate your basic sourcing costs

Basic sourcing costs include:

• Job boards. Look at previous job board expenses to draw useful conclusions about your most effective sources of hire.
• Recruiters’ salaries. Tally the costs for any in-house recruiters and sourcers. Add the total cost of their salaries to your budget.
• Employer branding. Budget what you need to establish your employer brand. That includes attending events (separate from recruiting events) and creating branding material (e.g. company videos and social media campaigns).

Step 3: Estimate your fixed costs

Your fixed costs category can include:

• Partnerships with universities and institutions. Consider how many candidates you hired who you sourced from graduate career fairs or campus recruitment events. Use this data to determine how much to spend on graduate events in the future.
• External recruiting agencies. If you rely on external recruiters, add agency fees to your budget.
• Recruiting events. Estimate fees, tickets and accommodation for events you’re interested in attending.

Step 4: Estimate your recruiting technology costs

This includes software fees for recruiting tools (monthly or annually). For example:

• Social media premium accounts, like LinkedIn Recruiter
• Candidate sourcing tools, like People Search
• Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), like Workable

Step 5: Include miscellaneous costs

Other costs or one-time expenses in your sourcing budget include:

• Implementing employee referral bonus programs
• Redesigning your careers page

For an even deeper dive into how to source candidates, download our detailed candidate sourcing ebook. 

The post How to source candidates: An FAQ guide appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

So, you have plenty of company when struggling to attract candidates or even finding that your candidates are dropping out midway through the recruitment pipeline.

However, just knowing this is not helpful. You need to solve this. Simply put, you need qualified candidates now to fill up those positions – and fast.

But first, let’s look at a few possible reasons behind the shrinking CPH metric in these times.

Why are good candidates so few and far between?

According to seasoned recruiters, here are the major reasons why you are not getting suitable candidates, or why they are dropping out:

• The job post fails to deliver the intended message to the candidates
• The job posts are not posted on the right channels
• You are not leveraging new and emerging talent sourcing trends, like social media campaigns and passive candidate outreach
• Your search team is struggling with a lack of tools and resources
• You are not utilizing the innovative new strategies of talent search
• Candidates are more selective in applying for openings
• Lack of sync between what the employer is looking for and what the candidate wants in a job
• Other factors, like weak culture, benefits, and employer brand

Logically, we can say that if we can eliminate these reasons behind the scarcity of candidates, we will see improvements in our hiring results.

So, how can we rise above the roadblocks and get an abundance of great candidates?

5 ways to find good candidates

Follow these tried and tested strategies to get a flood of qualified candidates:

1. Create clear and high-intent job descriptions

Create your job descriptions and job announcements with as much precision as possible. It’s more about adding the “right” information, not the “most” information.

Workable has job description templates on almost every job that you might need to fill out. These templates are organized according to industries and job types.

A way of showing empathy directly in the job description is to address the major concerns about work-life balance and company culture that many candidates have today. On top of that, show that you have a development plan for the newly hired employees – tech workers, for instance, highly value this.

It should be apparent from the job posting that they can gain something from working with you. If they just want to be paid well, they have that opportunity in many places. But what gets you ahead is if you value them as a person and you’re interested in helping them in their career arc.

2. Pursue passive candidates

You need an active recruitment team that vigorously searches out passive candidates.

Passive candidates are candidates who are not actively looking for a new job but would consider switching given the right offer. In fact, 37% of US workers are passive candidates.

You never know the opportunity you have to offer might make a lot of the talent rethink their career trajectory.

If you come up with an inclusive package and reach the right candidates, hiring can be made easier.

You just need the right strategy and tools.

Here’s an email template that you can customize for reaching out to passive candidates:

Subject: Open [Position Title] role at [Company Name]

Hi [Candidate Name],

I am [Your Name], [Your Job Title], at [Company Name]. I saw your profile on [LinkedIn, Github, Behance, etc.] while searching for candidates for the open role of [Position Title]. (**Link to job posting here.)

Based on your extensive expertise on [key skill/s], I believe you would be an excellent fit for the job, and I would love to know more about your interests and career goals.

Would you be available for a quick chat anytime this week or the next? Just let me know your availability, and we can set up a call.

Looking forward to meeting you soon.

Thank you,

[Your Name]

[Signature]

3. Got LinkedIn? Fine! But where else?

Okay, so you are posting your JD on LinkedIn, Indeed, and other places, and you are also getting quite a few applications. But guess what? None of them is quite the match you are looking for.

What more can you do? Diversify your options.

Consider the following:

• Industry-specific job boards
• Exploring remote job boards
• Leveraging the freelance workforce

You can also try reaching out to recruiters outside of your current network to share and collaborate on talent database enrichment – that’s one way of thinking outside of the box.

Here’s a template email for reaching out to recruiters that you can customize as per your needs:

Subject: Potential collaboration for an expanded candidate pool

Hi [Name],

I am [Your Name], [Your Job Title], at [Company Name]. I found you on LinkedIn while searching for fellow recruiters working in the [industry/sector name]. Given the talent crunch we are experiencing, I thought of reaching out to you in the hopes of forging a mutually beneficial collaboration.

I would love to talk with you about the possibility of sharing our talent pools so that we can hire faster and more effectively.

Would you be available for a quick chat anytime this week or next? Just let me know your availability, and we can set up a call.

Looking forward to meeting you soon.

Thank you,

[Your Name]

[Signature]

On the other hand, the job market has sprouted up a different sort of recruiter – the reverse recruiter. They work directly for jobseekers and help them find their dream roles. They network and find open positions on behalf of jobseekers and help them apply for the position.

Creating and building connections with these professionals can be mutually beneficial. They can help you if they have a jobseeker with the skills you need.

4. Build savvy and empathetic recruitment processes

The whole recruitment process needs to show a certain savvy and empathy.

Today’s candidates have seen workplaces and will know what kind of environment it is. So it’s important to put your best foot forward and ensure a great candidate experience.

From the way you message to how the information is being disseminated to the candidates will show them that you care for the professional partnership that you are about to embark on.

More importantly, emotional empathy should always remain as a guiding light. Even sharing an interview preparation guidebook – such as this video interview guide – as a gesture of care after setting up the interview date can show that you support their growth.

5. Take advantage of recruiter tools and resources

Acquiring knowledge and information can be tricky. Sometimes, we simply don’t know what we don’t know and what we are missing out for not having that piece of knowledge or information.

Take, for example, the Boolean search strings while searching for candidates. This simple piece of knowledge can be so powerful.

Yet another point in case would be technologies like the mobile hiring app and recruitment email automation that can immensely help with productivity and time management.

New tools, strategies, and resources continue to emerge, and when you’re in the hiring business, you need to be on the lookout for new developments. Be agile. Be nimble. Don’t hesitate to introduce new things in your work processes.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way

Yes, finding and retaining the right candidates might have become more challenging than ever before. However, the new avenues of talent sourcing are also emerging rapidly.

All you have to do is keep an open mind to the new and emerging tools and techniques, try out different things, and above all, know where and how to get in front of your potential candidates.

We hope the above tips, ideas, and suggestions will help you get through this talent crunch gracefully.

Liz Hogan is the Content Outreach Manager and a CPRW at Find My Profession. She regularly shares her advice on job search strategies. She is also passionate about volunteering and learning new languages.

The post Can’t find good candidates? Here are 5 ways to get on top of that appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.