I’m on a mission to elevate how you work with recruiters from this day going forward. Whether it’s internal corporate recruiter at your company or a 3rd party agency recruiter. Here are the things you should know.
There is a saying in the recruiting field that agency recruiters go to corporate recruiting to die. They don’t really die, some just lose their headhunting edge. They may not cold call passive candidates anymore or do a lot of active outreach because they are now getting a cushy salary AND applicants who apply to their job postings.
In the past when they worked at a recruiting agency, their livelihood depended on cold calling and extreme persistence going after passive candidates because they were earning a salary plus commission. Their salary was probably barely enough to pay their bills. They received commissions on each placement they make so they had to go after people who were gainfully employed because they are the best talent out there. Companies who are paying a recruiting firm top dollar expect the best, most qualified candidates.
Agency recruiters rely on commissions to live.
At companies with known brands, they actually have people who readily apply to their jobs because they have a strong employment brand. Are the applicants the best applicants in the marketplace? Probably not! I remember back to when I was a corporate recruiter working on an IT Manager position. We would have all sorts of applicants who weren’t qualified, I saw applications from a baker, warehouse manager, customer service rep, you name it they applied. Clearly not the background needed to be an IT Manager. Sifting through all of those unqualified applicants takes time which is part of the job however, in my opinion every recruiter must have a passive candidate outreach strategy.
I recruited at Target Corporation for 7 years and I created a recruiting strategy for every single job opening, cold called candidates at work, emailed people at work, sent them messages on FB, Twitter, and did this multiple times over and over until they would talk to me. This is what made me so successful! I didn’t go to corporate recruiting to die, I brought the edge I had with me.
When I was an Executive Recruiter at Target I had 90% of my outreach calls and emails returned. It was easier than ever to recruit passive talent. I’m sure it’s because Target had an incredible employment brand. What an incredible combination:
- Great employment brand
- Wonderful career opportunities
- Faster way to hire higher quality talent
Now every company is not as recognizable as Target…. but no matter how big or small, I’m here to tell you that no one should be settling for the old ‘post & pray’ method, especially in this candidate driven market. Creating a recruiting strategy and persistently going after the passive candidate pool is the key to attracting quality talent to your organization.
Would love to connect with you and share the wisdom I’ve learned along my 20+ year recruiting journey. I’m gifting you some of my time. If you are a hiring leader or HR leader who is struggling to fill their job openings, schedule 20 mins on my calendar HERE. There are no strings attached. I guarantee it will be time well spent and you will walk away with a new tactic or tactics you can utilize immediately.
Look forward to helping you shorten the time it takes to find your next hire!
Cheers,
Renee