Seven Deadly Sourcing Sins
You all know about the seven deadly sins. Commit any one of these and your eternal future may be in jeopardy. Today, I'll reveal the seven deadly sins of sourcing. While their eternal consequences may not be quite so dire, their negative effects on your ability to attract the best talent are an absolute certainty. For those of you who are well versed in classic literature, now would be a good time to recall Dante's seven levels of hell or some of the more graphic Greek tragedies. If I remember correctly they don't end well. So, to avoid similar consequences you might want to pay careful attention to these common sourcing pitfalls:
- Sourcing before understanding the real job. Don't even think about engaging in any sourcing approach without a complete understanding of the job. Here are just a few of the questions that must be answered before starting any sourcing approach:
- Why would someone who is good at this type of work want this particular job?
- What does the person need to do in the job to be considered outstanding?
- What will the person do, learn, and become with this job?
- Why is doing this job at your company better than doing the same job at a competitor?
If you were able to answer these questions with some degree of specificity, you may now proceed to the next six sins. All good sourcing activities require deep job knowledge, so it amazes me how many recruiters expect to attract top talent without it. Your ability to create a compelling pitch, post a killer ad, or convince a candidate who's on the fence to move forward all comes from job knowledge. Job knowledge also allows a recruiter to understand what the benefits are for the candidate (i.e., opportunity, growth, stretch). Otherwise, all you have left is compensation and benefits, and in this market, that's not nearly enough.
- Sole sourcing from major job boards. Any decent manufacturer knows that sole sourcing in general is a bad idea. If you only have one supplier you put your entire product at risk. If that supplier dries up or fails to deliver product (i.e., candidates on time) you've got a serious problem. It's the same with sourcing. If posting an ad on a major job board is your primary or only sourcing approach, you've already committed the second deadly sin. Where are you spending your sourcing dollars? What percent of the candidates you interview come from active sources such as major job boards? According to our 2007/2008 Recruiting and Hiring Challenges Survey, 91% of recruiters report that both the quality and quantity of the candidates from the major job boards (Monster, Hot Jobs and Career Builder) is declining. Traffic (as a percent of overall internet traffic) to the major job boards has been declining for some time, but only half the fault lies with the boards. The second part of this deadly equation has to do with the quality of the posting, but we'll get to that in the third deadly sin of sourcing. Corporations report that budgets set aside for advertising on the major job boards are declining. This doesn't mean that advertising doesn't work, but focusing on niche sites, aggregators, ERP programs, sourcing specialists, new sourcing techniques, and other more indirect methods of attracting top talent will produce far better advertising results that the major boards will. Congratulations to you if you've managed to avoid the first two deadly sins. As sins go, these are the worst, but there's plenty more to come…
- Posting boring job descriptions. Never, ever, ever post the job description you get from the hiring manager. I know it's tempting, and it certainly saves time because technology has made it so easy, but I guarantee most job descriptions are not ready for prime time. Most job descriptions are boring, full of company jargon, and don't truly describe the real job. Consequently, the best candidates won't respond. The good news is, this sin is easily correctable. If you know the job, you've already got most of the right information to create a really compelling job description. All you need to do now is to package it in such a way as to attract your ideal candidate. You may even consider writing multiple compelling ads to attract different demographics. In consumer marketing, one size doesn't fit all. To learn about compelling advertising you can join us in our online Recruiter Boot Camp where we discuss this in detail.
- Calling all employee referrals. I'm personally a great fan of ERP programs. I believe they are one of the greatest untapped resources in most companies. Approximately 30% of all hires in the fortune 100 companies in the U.S. come from this source. I've seen numbers as high at 75% for some recruiters. However, not all employee referrals are good. There isn't enough time in the day to call an unqualified candidate. Here are a few questions to ask:
- Are all your referred employees prequalified?
- Do your employees recommend for a specific position or type of position?
- Does your recruiting team already know what makes this particular referral great before contacting them?
ERP programs are an ideal starting point for attracting more passive candidates, but unqualified candidates are not much better than someone who responds to an ad on Monster or Hot jobs. The key is to have each employee answer a few quick questions about each referral. On a scale from 1-10 how would you rank this employee? What type of work did they do exceptionally well? Would you like to work for them again? If the candidate doesn't get a score higher than 8, we don't call. We simply can't waste the time.
- Hello, I'm just calling to network. . . Right now in the City of New York alone there are just over 10,000 recruiters calling candidates with that exact pitch. You've only got one shot to get it right and your approach as a recruiter on the initial call will make a huge difference in the number of qualified candidates contacted, number of referrals received, and the speed at which you can deliver a qualified slate of candidates. You must recruit first and network second. This requires a different approach with candidates. Now before I dismiss this approach out of hand, take this short self-diagnostic: When you call a referral, what percentage of the people return your call? If it's 80% or more, keep doing what you are doing. When you talk to a good candidate who is not right for the job, how many referrals do you get? If it's less than 3 per contact (on average) you need to change your approach. Changing your approach may make the difference between hooking the right candidates and getting more referrals or ending up with a big fat zero. How many calls do you think good candidates get every day with the same pitch? Make yours different and compelling.
- Staying the course. It sounded like sage advice when Reagan first used it in the 1980s, but it doesn't cut it today with regards to recruiting. Too many recruiters keep using the same stale sourcing channels over and over again without ever looking at their yields or candidate quality. If a sourcing channel doesn't produce good results, can it and move on. Great recruiters branch out and try new sourcing tools, they try them before everybody else does, and if they fail, they move on to the next one without wasting any time. Not every tool is right for every position, but those recruiters who are willing to take chances with new techniques will be richly rewarded. Run contests within your companies for the most outrageous sourcing ideas. Don't let the corporate police slow you down. This race will go to those who are willing to take the LinkedIn concept to a whole new level (see Lou's article on 10 great ways to use LinkedIn). Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, niche sites, SEO, reverse engineering, and a whole host of other ideas are out there to help you. Don't expect everything to work perfectly for you the first time, but budget some of your time to experiment with these sources.
- Giving up on good candidates too soon. One of the key principles we teach in our Recruiter Boot Camp is “Don't take ‘No' for an answer!” I remember one candidate who was reluctant to put his hat in the ring for a CEO search I was conducting on the east coast. He was an outstanding candidate, and ideal for the position, which provided a much bigger budget, bigger impact inside the organization and the community, and there were some real challenges to sink his teeth into. However, being close to retirement, he didn't want to relocate. He and his wife had strong connections in their community and had lived there for over 16 years. Because of this, he didn't think his wife would be willing to move. At the end of our third conversation I sensed that the real issue wasn't him but only his perception of what his wife wanted. I asked if he would give me her cell phone number. I called her that night and after an hour conversation we hung up the phone. The next morning I received his formal application for the position. He'd actually filled it out weeks before, but wasn't willing to send it until his wife was ready. He is now the CEO of a large non-profit organization in Philadelphia and loving it. Finding good candidates is easy (we'd identified him early in the process); it's getting them engaged that is the real skill of a top-notch recruiter.
Of course, these seven sins aren't the only ways to sabotage your sourcing, but these just happen to be some of the most common and deadly. Avoid these pitfalls and you'll quickly find yourself in the top 20% of all recruiters.
Happy Recruiting.