What’s the five best tips for recruiters to source job candidates?

I’ve been in HR and Recruiting for 20 years and can help you here:

1)  Have a well-written job description; have your target market defined; have the must-have’s and nice-to-have’s separated; put in your absolute minimum salary the company will pay for the position – this is vital to screen out those who don’t have the skill sets or those who are much more qualified for the salary range.

2)  Have a well-padded network – use the social networks available to you, and have a large list of folks who do nothing all day long but assist job seekers get those jobs – employment commissions in each state, job boards at military service centers (TAP), colleges/universities’ career offices, career counselors at non-profit organizations.  Keep those lists updated constantly and consistently.  Learn to grab and run with any e-mail address that is offered to you for POC’s of offices that assist job seekers.  Send out thank you notes or holiday greetings to those contacts occasionally, but don’t spam them, either.

3) Learn your ‘Boolean’ – if you don’t know how to effectively use query engine coding you will never get anywhere.  Use the specialized codes which get you into websites, excel spreadsheet lists, e-mail lists, etc.  Take courses from AIRS.org (AIRS University – one of the most incredible and most fantastic Boolean Job Candidate courses I’ve ever taken!).

4)  Use your Social Networking – not just on LinkedIn and FaceBook, but on personal recruiting blogs, other social networks (there are hundreds out there!), go to MeetUp.com and EventBrite to create groups to organize job fairs, virtual job fairs, in-house job fairs, and other events which gets you meeting real people in less formal situations than a straight-laced job fair.

5) Use your Automated Tracking System (ATS) to the utmost.  If you don’t have one, get one.  The $100 to $500 a month for one to five user licenses that enable you to start ‘farming’ qualified candidates, screening them automatically, reserving them for that future opening you know is coming.  Send out annual notices to folks to update their resumes in the system because you see job openings for your company in the next 1, 2, of even 6 months out and you are reviewing current resumes now.  Touch base with everyone who applies for a job by acknowledging they applied for one of your jobs, let them know when/if a job has been filled or closed with no hire; and let them know you care enough to provide them with a POC name, e-mail address, and phone number if they have questions.

These five tips will help recruiters get to the top of their game.

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Providing Career Training & Development, as well as Human Resources consulting to small businesses in the Hampton Roads, VA area.

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