Recruiting Software

Beating Applicant Tracking Systems

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth) — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 18:24:00 +0000

This article was written by Meridith Levinson and Brian Mecca turned it into a discussion on LinkedIn I like the article but it may be for reasons other than Brian had in mind. I do agree with him 100% on the reasons he describes but not sure about the accuracy of 75% kill rate. But he is correct most “Direct Hire” internal recruiting systems are not very good. Most “3rd Party” recruiters will attest to this failure if they joined the ranks as a “Direct Hire” recruiter and tried to use their internal applicant tracking system. 3^rd party applicant tracking systems are far superior to “Direct Hire” systems. They are better not only because of the software but because of the user and the motivation. The real “tell’ here is that if a 3^rd party recruiter’s applicant tracking system is not working they must find one that does work or they will be out of business. What is so frustrating for me over the years is that you cannot simply take a good 3^rd party recruiting system and ‘Bolt’ it into the ‘Direct Hire’ machinery of a HR department because it usually fails just like the rest. So I have to believe it is not the tool, it is the tool user.

Number one trait of a good recruiter

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 18:42:00 +0000

This question was asked in a discussion group on LinkedIn by Jorg Stegemann. Here is how I answered it.

Like the question. I have been asking it for 30 years. I do not believe there is a number one trait. There are several traits that come together in a perfect storm. For some recruiters one trait stands out and for others another stands out. So here is my recipe of traits. Ability to engage with people and communicate your sincere interest, organization, higher than normal confidence in yourself the ability to get up and keep going after defeat with a strong work ethic in your sails.As I said I do not believe there is a priority to any of these traits. I have worked with successful recruiters who demonstrate these skills in different order, but they must all be there.

Stupid Interview Questions

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 21:38:00 +0000

Great article by John Zapp at ERE "Odd ball interview questions". I did respond with this comment on interview questions.

"Hi John, We haven’t spoken in a while but I flagged this article last week because it caught my attention. So, good job in getting my attention :) I think everyone is drawn to stupid interview questions. I think a standup comic could make a good living on just this single theme. But the truth is that we have them because the interview concept gets flawed when we have the wrong person doing the interviewing. The person doing the interviewing with questions like these seems to me to get a little too much enjoyment out of surprising or embarrassing the candidate. I personally could never ask such a question and I am not known to be timid or shy. It is just a matter of respect for another human being."

Recruiters are not spiders

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 18:39:00 +0000

Most recruiters seem to have a vague understanding that connections are important. So they sign up for every networking page they can get their hands on.

Then like a spider who built a beautiful web they sit and wait for a customer to fall in. Recruiters are not spiders.

LinkedIn is paid to be a headhunter-recruiter

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 19:25:00 +0000

LinkedIn is different from Twitter and Facebook, very different.

LinkedIn is a network of primarily business contacts therefore I do not believe it can be called a social network. Some say that LinkedIn is overvalued; this may also be true because of the suspected rumor that it has a very low percentage of active users. But if you are a recruiter then why should you care? If you can find potential clients or applicants based on a few demographics like job title, location, industry and skills then this is a recruiter's heaven. LinkedIn provides huge short cuts to those endless phone calls of who knows who from were. Where it used to take weeks to find one qualified non-passive candidate, it can now be done in minutes.

Most of the naysayers are not looking at the LinkedIn’s value based on the recruiter’s perspective and they have very good points. See Krista Bradford and Seeking Alpha

I really like these articles because they are both reality checks on what LinkedIn’s value actually is and where it may be heading. I believe LinkedIn’s natural evolution is in the job and sales business. I think it would be silly for it to try to compete with FaceBook, Twitter and now Google plus for the pure social part of networking which is usually a ‘boy meets girl’ kind of deal.

The future of LinkedIn lies in job boards like Monster, Career Builder and Dice and contact management systems like Sales Force. It can be a big player in these areas but does not stand a chance in true social networks. This is a good thing for both recruiters and LinkedIn. LinkedIn is branded and so it should use its brand and not try to be something it is not. They should capitalize on their true value.

If you want a quick fact sheet on LinkedIn so you can figure out if you can make it work for you, it comes down to these bullets:

• LinkedIn is planning to offer an ATS/CRM system. Since I make my living selling ATS systems I will be watching. Up until now I have always described LinkedIn as an excellent sourcing tool but that it is only the first step in the work of a successful recruiter and the entry point of a recruiting software.
• Only 1% of the LinkedIn members visit more than once a month. I say “so what”, as long as they have a profile with a title?
• LinkedIn is a sourcing tool not a recruiting system
• It has been reported for some time that the majority of the traffic on their website has been from Recruiters
• There seems to be a consensus that the use of InMail responses is gradually declining but it is still better than emails
• LinkedIn and any other Social Networking sites used by recruiters can get the recruiter and the candidate ‘Over Branded’ like yesterday’s news. Some of the comments below can help me explain this point a little better.

Ted Moore “…looks like a European CV and the candidate has 50 recommendations and 500 connections, the brand suffers a hit in the minds of those clients…””
Krista Bradford “…A lot of us on this thread specialize in finding candidates that are not so obvious ...”
Geoff Peterson ”…so, just because we can find them on LinkedIn doesn’t necessarily mean the value of that candidate should be any less…”
Jim Sullivan “…LinkedIn is a tool, it will never do your job for you, you still have to “follow the yellow brick road” to get what you need…”
Gordon Frutiger “…And the reality that LinkedIn is nothing more than a marketing and recruiting site is shocking because?...”

Recruiter Burn-Out

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 20:30:00 +0000

Good article on recruiter burn out. I did comment on it that there is another factor causing recruiters to burn-out.

One is the “dark matter”. Where do new recruiters come from? 99% of the time they come from their professional niche and make the leap to recruiting because they are tired of looking for a job or just tired of their job. Therefore the pipeline for recruiters is defective to begin with because these people are not necessarily equipped with the sales skills needed to withstand this brutal assault on their egos.

However after writing the comment I remembered another factor that contributes to recruiter burnout. Recruiting is one of the toughest sales jobs in the world, because it is one of the few sales positions where the product (Candidate) can actually say “no”. I cannot imagine if our recruiting products could be able to say “I do not want work with that client”.

The human element to the product can be devastating to the recruiter not only because applicants have a free will but also because the recruiter knows they are effecting a life changing decision for the applicant. Some recruiters can shut this thought down caveat emptor style. Some can’t and the pressure of it eventually kills the enthusiasm for the job, because the product has a voice and a history forever after. There will be no peace for a recruiter who feels guilty because things did not work out for the applicant. It is time to change professions.

Attention recruiters - Overused resume words

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:07:00 +0000

I was watching CNN the other day and they had an interesting survey on resume words. They said that ‘creative’, ‘organizational’, ‘effective’, ‘extensive experience’ and ‘track record’ are overused in resumes and that you should find other words to use. We use resume parsers in our recruiting software and and have most likely parsed over 10 million resumes in the last 20 years. It would be interesting to see how many of our customers use these words as key words.
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Death of Recruiting Databases? I don't think so.

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:28:00 +0000

Yesterday there was an article that caught my attention by Peter Cosgrove. The article is about his straightforward experience with the last 20 placements with a very large recruiting agency. Low and behold more than 50% came from their own internal recruiting database. The comment by Stephen Harrington made the most sense from this discovery. "…While your competitors also have access to LinkedIn, only your organization has access to your own Database!"

Chicken or Egg question for recruiters in 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 21:05:00 +0000

A chicken or egg question for 2012 Outlook - Do we need to break the political gridlock to move the economy? Or do we need to move the economy to break the political gridlock?

Recruiters! Banks do rule the world

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 15:18:00 +0000

There was a discussion started today “Do Banks rule the world?” in the LinkedIn group AESC / BlueSteps by Catarina Alexon that I just felt I had to comment on.

Yes! Banks rule the world and about 10 of them rule USA. It has always struck me that the concept “to big to fail” does not evolve into the next logical sound bite “then it is to big”. What happen to the word “monopoly” and the Sherman Antitrust Act? Banks are strangling our economy. It is clear to almost everyone except the Government, Republicans, Democrats, Liberals, Conservatives and the Tea Party.

So Recruiters it is time to change your niche!

10 reasons why recuiters should avoid social media

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 16:35:00 +0000

I saw a discussion “10 Reasons Why HR Professionals & Recruiters Should Avoid Social Media …” in the group Executive Search Network - AESC / BlueSteps. No one has posted a comment. To me both the question and the “no response” tell volumes.

Do recruiters make money using social media?

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 17:03:00 +0000

I am trying to catch up here, with some meaningful content. I work a lot with customers on recruiting software and leveraging it with social media. So much so lately we hardly get a chance to work on anything else. But when I got to my desk this morning a thought struck me that I am sure has crossed the minds of many recruiters.

Who makes the money using social media as a recruiting tool, the recruiters or the social media vendors?

For example, how many times has a recruiter seen something like this “How to Extract Candidates and Leads from FaceBook, Twitter and LinkedIn, just sign up for our webinar, subscribe to our newsletter, buy the book or buy the video”. The sign up price is small or free but you get 25 emails a week loaded with so many ads it feels like you’re driving into Las Vegas being blasted with about a million billboards.

How 3rd party recruiters build databases

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 17:53:00 +0000

I read something the other day as being a great secret. 3rd party recruiters build their candidate databases, not through sourcing via the internet social networks and job boards, but by client development and personal relationships with the talent in their recruiting niche. It struck me because I always believed this was obvious. To see it in writing as a recruiting strategy is a little scary to me. How can you possibly make a living as a 3rd party recruiter any other way?

Recruiting Tip - Hearing it Again

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth) — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 15:24:00 +0000

Recruiters are inundated with recruiting tips and advice every day. Most of this advice is not new but just repackaged. The real value of hearing again is “hearing it again”. For example this simple tip from Gary Stauble. "So, what’s this simple but important goal? 1 sendout per day. It’s clear and it helps you to prioritize every aspect of your day".

Pointers for Receiving Emails From Clients or Applicants

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth) — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 19:15:00 +0000

First of all, think about your attitude toward spam. Recruiters are a different breed when it comes to receiving email. Many recruiters have the attitude of “I never saw an email I didn’t like.” On the receiving side for a recruiter there may not be such a thing as spam. As a recruiter, would you rather have to delete 50-100 emails each day that are spam or potentially miss out on that placement email that puts money in your pocket? Tightening down on your spam control may cause you to miss an email from a client requesting to interview an applicant or you may be missing a rich source for leads.

The more you or your email provider put software in place to stop you from receiving spam, the higher the risk of important emails either being totally blocked or getting delivered to your Junk Email folder. More ...

RecruitingBlogs.com sells for $95,000

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 14:05:00 +0000

Now that is news! Congratulations Jason! Who the high bidder? How will the site evolve? http://bit.ly/recruitingblogs-sale.

RecruitingBlogs for sale via auction on Flippa

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth) — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 17:51:00 +0000

Most interesting! I never heard of Flippa before this and an auction, no less! http://bit.ly/lp5yMI Jason Davis has proved once again to be a very creative person. I will be interested to see how this turns out.

IQ and Buzzwords usage are inversely related

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth) — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 15:00:00 +0000

We should try to not use them. They interfere with your ability to communicate and will hurt your recruiting efforts.

Great article on recruiters and technology

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 22:00:00 +0000

Here is a snippet of the article by Kevin Wheeler

“Are you able to take advantage of technology to do the boring, repetitive parts of recruiting? Do you have tools that automatically schedule interviews, recommend people based on their resumes, create all the reports and documents you need? Are you able to recruit faster than before? Have you invested in systems, technology, and process improvements to lower costs and improve the speed to hire, develop, retain, or engage your employees? If not, you are clearly lagging behind those who have, and will have a tough time catching up.” More …

You can put recruiters into three technological types:

1. Those who want nothing to do with technology or use it begrudgingly and are still good recruiters.

2. Those who embrace it and become better recruiters.

3. Those who are at the bleeding edge and are constantly seeking and searching for any gadget or service that may help them “mow the lawn faster” or “wash the car better”.

I come across all three types on a daily basis. The 3rd type just do not last long as recruiters no matter how good the gadget, service or software they found is. Why? Because they just keep on exploring for new gadgets. They probably have abandoned more good tools then bad ones. These people are gadget addicts. They have the delusional idea that they are creative forward Avant-garde thinkers.

More on losing placements via spam filters

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth) — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 16:16:00 +0000

Some of the responses I have received from this post worry me. I see that some recruiters do not understand some of the finer points of email protocol. They believe that you can set your email to check for received, open or read by recipient and everything will be cool. Many clients or prospects set their email systems to not respond like this in Preferences/E-mail Options/Tracking Options.

Also it does not solve the problem of email going to spam even though it was received. So as one comment mentioned it still is a “nightmare scenario”. But trust me it is not any form of dream it is real life and it happens all the time.

My whole point is do not rely on emails “pick up the phone”. Bill Radin wrote a line in one of his articles that I really liked, Using Surveys to Create Activity. Here is the line.

“I wish I could help you,” said Ellen, Tom’s supervisor. “But until you pick up the phone and start making calls, nothing will change.”

Recruiters lose placements because of Spam Filters

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 18:10:00 +0000

Emailing a single resume to a client can go to junk mail and cost a recruiter a placement. True story I have heard before. A client calls us and is frantic.

“I just lost a placement to a competitor because my email went to his junk folder and my competitor’s did not get marked as spam. Can you help us? I checked my email address it looks ok. I don’t have anything in my address that would invoke a spam filter! The client checked with his IT department and they did not see any problems. How much business am I losing because my emails are being marked as spam or worse not even getting into my clients email?”

I am sure everyone one of us has been there. On the phone with someone trying to figure out why the email is not getting through or going to junk. They say that going through a divorce and moving are two of the most stressful events that can occur in our daily lives. I would like to add this event as being right up there on the stress level;

“On the phone with Techie, Hosting, ISP or with anyone who in some way touch’s your email from the time it leaves your computer to the time it is suppose to get the addressee's computer.”

I don’t have all the answers but here are some links that may get you started or prevent you from being smoked by some support techie.

Microsoft's junk email filter
All about spam filters

Can You Manage Recruiters Without Recruiting Software?

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth) — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 17:53:00 +0000

What happens to a good recruiter, through good times and bad, that can make placements on a regular basis and then he/she has other recruiters added to the team and everything goes south? Not only do placements not increase, but worse, the good recruiter’s billings go down as well. Have you ever heard this story before?

"Recruiters have a tough job. Managing recruiters is even tougher! The two main challenges to good recruiter management are identifying your recruitment process and monitoring for the good and the bad within that process more ...”

Social Media Thrives; Job Boards Survive

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth) — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 22:33:00 +0000

Ok this is a very good article by John Zappe. But for the life of me I cannot see were this survey is pointing to social networks thriving for recruiters.

There are some good points. Referrals have been the top dog in 3rd party recruiting for 30 years. Applicant Tracking Systems must understand the power of referrals. Job boards and corporate web sites are interconnected. Staffing software needs to address both and recognize the connection. The information on the broad sense needs to be digested by any recruiter or recruiting firm manger and digested into "what am I going to do next" (strategic plan).

Recruiters need to know when to keep their mouth shut

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth) — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 17:40:00 +0000

It is not what you say it is how you say it. So many times I have seen a recruiter not understanding how they caused a war between the applicant and client. This article by Bill Radin best sums it up.

"A case in point: After two rounds of interviews, Helen’s client told her they planned to make an offer to Shelby, one of Helen’s candidates. Upon learning the good news, Helen immediately fired off an instant message. “Dear Shelby,” she wrote. “The company is working up an offer. Hope to have it finalized soon more ...”

From these few words being anxious to keep the applicant motivated the recruiter, Helen, has set herself up to fail with this placement.

Best tip of the month - Firing clients

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth) — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 14:53:00 +0000

I always have to wonder, recruiters are always trying to improve how fast they can get an applicant in front of the hiring source. They constantly look for techniques and recruiting software to speed up their delivery speed. But then everything thing stops for some recruiters. Why, because the client is not returning the calls or is changing the requirements of the position. And all that speed is wasted. There was a good recruiting article that we republished by ERE written by Howard Adamsky on speed and firing clients. The article was directed to direct hire recruiters but it applies to 3^rd party recruiters as well. To sum up, all the speed and from an ATS, sourcing and getting applicant in front of hiring sources is wasted energy if you do not have a responsive hiring source. For direct hire clients you need to find a way to get them to move faster. For 3^rd party clients you need to fire them.