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SOURCING STRATEGIES FOR THE NEW RECRUITING REALITY March 2009

SOURCING STRATEGIES FOR THE NEW RECRUITING REALITY | MARCH 2009

INTRODUCTION In today’s economy, your company’s career site may be experiencing more traffic than ever, with fewer job openings posted to view. Corporate recruiting teams that previously sought new ways to increase traffic to their job postings are now facing the opposite dilemma as the volume of candidates makes it even more difficult to select the most qualified ones. Welcome to the new recruiting reality of 2009. There are, however, significant opportunities to use this time to create a more competitive position for your company, increase your talent pipeline, adopt more efficient ways of sourcing, and try new, less expensive methods to recruit. Organizations that do not recalibrate their recruiting initiatives will miss an opportunity to identify and acquire top talent today and in the future. In order to help you take advantage of these opportunities, the talent management experts from SmartPost and Bernard Hodes Group recently met to discuss the current recruitment environment and offer their insight. Our panel included: •

Loren Nelson, Vice President, Digital Solutions

•

Shannon Seery Gude, Vice President, Digital

•

Laura Shanon, Vice President, Interactive Sourcing & Strategy

•

Carmen Doherty, Senior Director, SmartPost

We hope this practical guidance will help you tailor your recruitment marketing opportunities to leverage the dramatic expansion of the candidate universe.

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SOURCING STRATEGIES FOR THE NEW RECRUITING REALITY | MARCH 2009

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ADAPT YOUR JOB BOARD STRATEGY

One of the biggest challenges many businesses face is something they can’t control – far more candidates than open positions. Many companies signed contracts with job boards based on anticipated volume, only to see the need for posting reduced or eliminated. Now that they are locked into these contracts, organizations are wondering how to use them. “The first half of 2009 is a great time to build a candidate database. When the economy turns around, companies can benefit from the activity they are seeing now,” said Doherty. If you have a contract with a job board, find out what your options are. Restructuring agreements can create talent pools to fill positions later or convert postings to email campaigns in addition to other products that maximize your employment brand. You shouldn’t expect to pay less, but many job boards will work with you because they want to maintain a long-term relationship. “We’ve helped many of our clients convert leftover inventory with job boards into some great solutions,” adds Doherty. If you don’t have a contract with a large job board, you can layer your plans and generate the required volume to fill a position through free boards or less expensive niche and industry-specific sites, or by using search engine optimization (SEO) to drive traffic to your own career site. “From a talent pool perspective, it makes more sense to drive candidates to your career site and not to specific job postings,” Doherty said. In this economy, the smaller boards are producing big for many businesses, especially outside of the administrative and clerical functions where large job boards have typically excelled. Many companies are seeing free and low-cost job postings, for example on Craigslist, generating solid results with quality hires.

“

The first half of 2009 is a great year to build a candidate database. When the economy turns around, companies can benefit from the activity they are seeing now.

”

–Carmen Doherty, Sr. Director, SmartPost

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SOURCING STRATEGIES FOR THE NEW RECRUITING REALITY | MARCH 2009

“

...some spending is necessary to maintain candidate flow and keep your name out there so when you do start recruiting again, you haven’t been out of mind.

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–Laura Shanon, VP, Interactive Sourcing & Strategy

TELL THE STORY OF YOUR EMPLOYMENT BRAND

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Even for organizations with few positions to fill, completely suspending sourcing operations is not an option. “Many clients are reducing their overall budget, and many are reducing what they spend on passive candidates, too,” said Shanon. “However, some spending is necessary to maintain candidate flow and keep your name out there so when you do start recruiting again, you haven’t been out of mind.” Employment branding initiatives – especially those that help users understand your company culture and the employment experience – are critical, and should include targeted banner campaigns that use location and occupational targeting, search engine marketing (SEM) and targeted email through job boards. For higher-level positions, email lists from niche publications should also be included. However, you need a way to capture the traffic you drive to your site. “Only 10 percent of people who visit your career site actually submit a resume,” Shanon said. “What do you do with the other 90 percent? Developing a relationship-marketing database is a low-cost, high-ROI technique to increase the value of your website and collect more information from passive candidates who aren’t interested in submitting a resume but still want to keep in touch. The candidates who receive these communications are very interested in them and are highly engaged. Some clients are experiencing click-through rates as high as 50 percent and are seeing a huge increase in resume submissions.”

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SOURCING STRATEGIES FOR THE NEW RECRUITING REALITY | MARCH 2009

CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

Even if a visitor doesn’t want to provide personal information, you can provide a dynamic experience with relevant content on your career site if you know the job seeker’s location and a desired position. Although this information may discourage some candidates because they will see they are not a good fit for your culture, this content can also increase the interest of highquality passive candidates who can opt in to a talent community and possibly consider future employment. Although location information is the most often visited section on many career sites, many companies overlook this opportunity to present compelling messages about their employment brand. “There’s no better way to do this than video,” said Seery Gude. “You can show an employee talking about their job and describing what their department is like. You can show the work environment, and explain other details such as where to eat lunch or location perks such as nearby fitness centers and childcare.” Nelson agreed. “People don’t want to read websites, they want to watch. Any career site that doesn’t use at least some video sends a message that the company is behind the curve.” Another important aspect of employment branding is conveying a sense of stability, because, in the wake of layoffs and closures, candidates are very interested in a potential employer’s viability. “A career site should establish this, just as companies took steps to communicate ethics after the Enron scandal,” Nelson said.

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...Any career site that doesn’t use at least some video sends a message that the company is behind the curve.

”

–Loren Nelson, VP, Digital Solutions

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SOURCING STRATEGIES FOR THE NEW RECRUITING REALITY | MARCH 2009

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Most companies realize they must be aware of metrics, but fewer ask about the goals for their career sites.

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–Shannon Seery Gude, VP, Digital

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START BUILDING THE PROCESS WITH ANALYTICS IN MIND

Analytics must be at the core of a full, end-to-end process that uses tagged media to track recruiting results. “Metrics should be at the core of your strategy,” Seery Gude said. “Start by setting goals, then see if your efforts are bringing in higher-quality candidates.” Many clients want to know if a candidate came from a specific media outlet, completed an application and made it through to hire. “We’ve been spending more time looking at analytics and developed new templates to visually represent that data,” Shanon said. Also, more clients are interested in tagging media and pages within their career sites to pass back candidate variables that can be tracked throughout the entire process. This information provides insight into the effectiveness of media buys and a search engine strategy, as well as the performance of certain aspects of a career site. However, the number of applications submitted is only one of many relevant metrics, and not necessarily the most desirable outcome in today’s high-traffic environment. For some companies, engaging passive candidates and nurturing those relationships might be a better outcome. “Did you find that people who watched a specific video were more likely to sign up for relationship marketing? Did a candidate who watched all or part of a video then apply? Did they enter your talent community or set up a profile? These are some of the things we can track,” Seery Gude said. From the beginning, your analytics strategy must be built with these outcomes in mind; it can’t be an ad hoc approach that changes with each media buy or sourcing strategy. To achieve ROI, your approach must be a comprehensive one. “Most companies realize they must be aware of metrics, but fewer ask about the goals for their career sites,” Seery Gude said.

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CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE However, the value is not in the data itself, but rather in the analysis and application. “Our account managers are trained to interpret this data and walk their clients through the metrics,” Shanon said. It’s easy to draw the wrong conclusion, and without linking the numbers to specific actions, the results can be meaningless. “Consider one page’s bounce rate, which means the number of people who come to that page and then leave the site. A bounce rate of 50 percent could look very bad, but if the page was designed with that intent, that number could be a positive one,” said Seery Gude. Everything must be tracked. Today, metrics are more readily available to optimize expenditures on job boards. For example, notes Doherty, “Once a client starts using our metrics dashboards as a decision support tool, their expenditures on media really become efficient. I’ve seen clients boost ‘high quality’ candidate response rates while decreasing their costs in short periods of time.”

“

Once a client starts using our metrics dashboards as a decision support tool, their expenditures on media really become efficient.

”

–Carmen Doherty, Sr. Director, SmartPost

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SOURCING STRATEGIES FOR THE NEW RECRUITING REALITY | MARCH 2009

DEVELOP AN EFFECTIVE SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

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The use of social media (like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter) in recruitment can be confusing. Most recruiting organizations have dabbled in social networks, blogs and video to recruit, but without a comprehensive strategy. “Some believe using social media will be cheaper and easier than other media, but it isn’t,” said Seery Gude. “In many ways, it’s far more difficult and the expense comes in the form of exhausted time. However, the point of social media is honest, open two-way communication, and it can allow a business to share the human side of human resources.”

Putting a human face on corporate recruitment efforts can improve relationships with job seekers. For example, as companies utilize pre-screening more to handle the increase in applicant volume, the process can actually discourage some of the best candidates. However, online chat can provide a way to assess and engage people at the same time. After acknowledging certain pre-qualifications, candidates can connect directly with a recruiter in a way that is more personal. “This is an especially effective way to evaluate applicants who seem overqualified,” Nelson said. “In today’s economy, some people seem willing to take a step back in their career in order to find a job, and many employers are leery of them. With online chat, recruiters can evaluate them on a case-by-case basis.” LinkedIn and Facebook have opened up ways to connect directly with career sites, and many social networks are being stampeded with new users. Although this has resulted in some success with targeted ads within those networks, the real value of these sites is not the audience they aggregate but the content and discussions they generate. As these networks grow, candidates increasingly expect interactivity to be a part of the recruitment process, but most legal departments are terrified of the risk involved and lack of control. Because the issues loom large for most organizations, HR will need to lead the way in developing a cohesive social network recruiting strategy. “We’re all coming to terms with the fact we’ve never had control over what people are saying about our company anyway,” Seery Gude said. “We don’t control employees when they are on the phone. We don’t control them during public speaking engagements. And we don’t control them on Facebook. The difference with social media is that comments travel far more quickly.

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CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE However, unlike policies around phone and email use or personal conduct, companies aren’t creating social media policies for their employee handbooks. We encourage our clients to develop guidelines to show employees the way.” Because of the complexity of the issues, currently it’s easier for smaller organizations than large ones to successfully implement social media strategies. “When you have only two or three recruiters who are the face of the organization, it can work really well,” said Shanon. “For large companies with hundreds of recruiters who may or may not be interested in using the tools, it’s harder to organize them into a recruiting force within a social network.” One possible solution could be the use of “employee evangelists” – interested and tech-savvy employees who could help companies administer their social network presence and provide regular updates. However, identifying these people and getting them trained remains an issue.

“

...the point of social media is honest, open two-way communication, and it can allow a business to share the human side of human resources.

”

–Shannon Seery Gude, VP, Digital

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DESIGN YOUR SITE TO BE SEARCH ENGINE-FRIENDLY

Your average job seeker is most likely to begin their online search with Google, and, in a typical month, there are 124 million job-related searches. These searches should lead first to your career site, but, in most cases, they don’t. Instead, they might lead to job boards or forums that contain information that may not be relevant or positive from your perspective. A career site is a goldmine of fresh content that can increase SEO and improve the chances for candidates to find your site first. One simple change most companies can make is in the use of language for job postings. A requisition loaded with company-specific jargon may not be understood by anyone outside your organization and more than likely will not generate the best results. Job descriptions that use frequently searched keywords and clearly understood language, titles, requirements and expectations can increase results. “Tracking shows that changing titles can attract more relevant candidates,” Nelson said. “For example, if your company is posting a position for a ‘server’, you should also find a way to include the word ‘waiter’. You also see this a lot with customer service representatives. Many times, it can be difficult to tell from a title whether the position is customer-facing or in a call center.” Also, the home page of your career site is only one of many potential entry points for job seekers to access your site. “If you have a section of your site for IT professionals, you should optimize the first page of this section just as you would your home page,” Nelson said. Job databases must also be accessible to indexing by search engines, and use of RSS feeds offers one solution to this issue. However, as sites become less text-driven and use more video, you must make it easier for search engines to access this information. “With video, we implement an ADA-compliant full transcript that is great from a search engine perspective because it provides a text version of content that couldn’t be indexed when in a video format.”

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SOURCING STRATEGIES FOR THE NEW RECRUITING REALITY | MARCH 2009

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Companies with open positions today do have leverage, but the best candidates are frequently jumping at the first offer they get.

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–Loren Nelson, VP, Digital Solutions

TREAT CANDIDATES WITH RESPECT

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Aside from proper etiquette, a business case exists for communicating with candidates after they submit their resume and treating them with respect. However, many applicants who visit most career sites never hear another word from the company, which is a lost opportunity for engagement.

Job seekers want more insight into what happens after clicking on the “submit” button. “Companies with open positions today do have leverage, but the best candidates are frequently jumping at the first offer they get,” Nelson said. “You have to move quickly to get these candidates, and increasing visibility into the hiring process can improve your chances of getting them to wait long enough to hear from you.” For example, some companies are turning the FAQ sections on their career sites into a message board that allows candidates to ask questions, which begins the process of building a positive impression. “Sometimes the posting isn’t the most important thing,” Seery Gude said. “What makes people want to apply usually isn’t the job description, especially with passive candidates. Engaging content about your brand and your culture can ease a candidate into the process and build the rationale that makes a candidate want to work at your company.”

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CONCLUSION

The increased volume of candidates presents both a challenge and an opportunity for companies. Although hundreds of applicants for a single position can increase the difficulty of finding the best person for the job, this selection process is best viewed not as one of elimination but as one of engagement. Some of the applicants for the position might not be right fit for that specific opening, but they could be valuable in another capacity within your organization. And passive candidates who decide not to apply for the job might be interested in future openings if you can maintain and nurture the relationship. As daunting as these challenges may seem, it’s clear the future of online recruitment initiatives will involve increased interactivity, personalization and analytics. The companies that embrace these initiatives will not only be prepared to handle the current reality, but also the increase in hiring that will resume as the economy improves.

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