Subadhra Sriram's Blog
How Star Recruiters Hunt (Hint: It’s in the Search)
Tune out the white noise that is around the different sources of recruiting available. Forget about niche job boards. Forget about job fairs. Even job ads only work if you do it right. How you do your searches is what’s critical declare experts. In fact, if you do your searches well, you don’t need anything but LinkedIn and the big job boards. This was one of the key takeaways at the panel titled “Highest Bang to Buck Recruiting Tactics” at the Executive Forum.
Much has been said about Google’s semantic search capabilities. Panelist Glen Cathey’s blog Boolean Black Belt gives valuable information on that and more. Some organizations like Mee Derby & Company, however, rely primarily on LinkedIn and the network of connections the firm’s employees have been developing. In 2013, “60 percent of our placements came in from our LinkedIn contacts,” says Robin Mee, president, Mee Derby. “We as an organization share best practices on how to use LinkedIn for talent acquisition,” she adds.
Both staffing firms and buyers of staffing services can direct their internal/offshore recruiters to search smart. It’s critical to train the new folks that come on board to understand how to search as well as develop their connections in a specific area of expertise. (LinkedIn for instance provides training for those who have upgraded licenses but there are many other options as well starting with independent trainers and leveraging your own company’s internal know-how.)
There are some out there who believe that relying on LinkedIn alone is chancy. Glen Cathey says it well. “Of course, you should leverage more than one source for your talent acquisition needs. I am not suggesting otherwise. In fact, I’d argue that you should use your own ATS/CRM as your first ‘go-to’ source for potential candidates for many reasons. … If you recruit in the U.S., do you really think it would be a good idea to NOT leverage two-thirds of the non-farm employees of the United States?”
Your answer could be the difference between success and failure.