Recruiters Are Really Project Managers

By Jessica Miller-Merrell

The term project manager might traditionally be reserved for IT professionals, but no matter what your career path, you’re most likely also a project manager. For instance, as a marketer and strategist, I juggle multiple clients at one time. Each has different requirements, expectations and a relationship that is separate and unique. A project manager, regardless of their industry, oversees a project through the planning, tactical and measurement phases, from beginning to end. Recruiters understand this tightrope walk better than anyone else. Their title may be recruiter, but their day-to-day responsibilities center around project management.

It’s no wonder that recruiters aren’t just great at recruiting. Through an informal survey of my recruiter friends and colleagues, I found that the average recruiter is handling approximately 25 job listings a month! That means that they could be working with as many as 25 different hiring managers and around 5,000 candidates on a monthly basis. No one handles that kind of client load without some serious project management skills.

This demand on recruiters is what pushes so many to become recruiters by day and project managers by night. What I mean by this is that the workload continues on regardless of how hectic schedules become, the number of phone calls they receive in a day or how many resumes each job listing summons. Throughout a 12 month period, an average recruiter will likely oversee 300 job requisitions and handle 60,000 candidates. These numbers alone tell you that now more than ever, recruiters are master project managers as well.

From my own observations, recruiting project management consists of three key functions:

Meeting client needs

It’s clear that recruiters are there to meet the needs of those we traditionally call their clients: the hiring managers. But when we talk about meeting needs, what doesn’t come up as often is the whole other set of clients that recruiters have: candidates. It’s true that recruiters mainly focus on supporting the hiring managers, but great recruiters care about their candidates’ needs as well and have to manage concerns, expectations and hopes on both ends of the spectrum. This alone can take up an enormous amount of time, and yet many recruiters keep the balance well and develop relationships with both parties that are beneficial in the future.

Keeping an excellent calendar and staying on target

Part recruiter, part project manager, part calendar keeper. Thus is the life of a recruiter. Not only do recruiters have to manage their own calendar but they also must coordinate with candidates, hiring managers, potential candidates and many more parties. It sounds simple, but it can be challenging when you also add in the stress of sticking to a hiring timeline, staying on target and meeting goals. In order to achieve this, recruiters often have to encourage, remind and accommodate.

Playing match maker

Aside from the logistics of juggling dozens of hiring managers and hundreds of candidates, recruiters must also be skilled in making great matches. It sounds obvious, but it’s both vital and sometimes forgotten by the time you’ve completed all the administrative tasks it takes to get there. Drawing contrast from the IT world once again, it’s the same as a technology project manager also understanding the technological side of what everyone on his or her team is doing. In the recruiting world, it’s not enough to just be a great recruiter or just be an excellent project manager. You must be able to cover all the bases in order to move from project to project, researching and fulfilling the needs of all parties.

 Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a workplace and technology strategist specializing in social media. She’s is the Chief Blogger & Founder of Blogging4Jobs. You can follow her on Twitter @jmillermerrell. 

How to Create Awesome Online Content for Your Job Seeker Community

By Jessica Miller-Merrell

Are you leveraging online content to attract potential candidates? If not, you’re missing a big piece of the recruiting puzzle. You’re not alone, though. Creating share-worthy online content is definitely easier said than done, and many are completely mystified by how one does it consistently. I know this because I get many questions about how I create online content day after day. The answer I give people is that content truly is all around us. I’m inspired by other blogs, podcasts, videos, photographs and so much more. However, behind that truth are a couple of secrets that I often think about hours after being asked the question.

So for those who want to create awesome content that job seekers want to read, I’d like to share a few tricks of the trade.

Understand your audience

Creating awesome online content starts with understanding your audience. In your head or on paper, briefly profile what your candidates are usually like, or what you want your candidates to be like. Doing this allows you to think about what these people want and need and to escape the trap of only coming up with ideas that appeal to you. The content isn’t about you. It’s about the needs of the intended audience you are trying to reach. Know your audience and you’ll soon know what they want to see, read and hear.

Keep it real

Your content should emphasize your employment brand’s look, feel and tone, but it shouldn’t sound like marketing speak. Content should appeal to candidates as individuals and should focus on providing a solution or resource that meets a need. Most days I talk to my intended audience directly, looking to them for inspiration. I ask them about their challenges, frustrations and situations that drive them crazy. This reminds me that there are real people on the other side accessing my content and reminds me of what they are like as individuals.  

Don’t limit yourself  

If I was only engaged in brainstorming content between the hours of 8 and 5, I wouldn’t have near as many resources on my website and blog. Ideas come at me in the strangest places, such as in the car while listening to a song, at home during a television show or while talking with a friend over coffee. By opening yourself up to accept ideas in many different forms and metaphors, you’ll have a never-ending supply of ideas for blogs, resources, webinars, podcasts and more.

Be original

This seems like a given, but in a world where job seekers have millions of blog posts and resources to choose from, it needs to be said. How can you give an old topic a fresh spin? Are you willing to tackle the tough things that no one else is talking about? Providing fresh and customized content that advises, informs and suits their needs will set you apart.

 Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a workplace and technology strategist specializing in social media. She’s is the Chief Blogger & Founder of Blogging4Jobs. You can follow her on Twitter @jmillermerrell. 

Internet Sourcing is the Best Solution to All Your Recruiting Needs

By Jessica Miller-Merrell

Internet sourcing is arguably one of the most dynamic tools that recruiters have available to them today. By using recruiting technologies and algorithms that monitor changes and updates to the social profiles of candidates and connections, you can engage and develop relationships with the candidates that would best fit your company. Recruiters can utilize these tools, along with their own techniques, to find hidden gems who would be nearly impossible to find without internet sourcing. This kind of system allows recruiters to be targeted and focused in their approach and aggressive in finding the best of the best. It’s no doubt one of the fastest growing and most successful strategies that recruiting teams are using and is ideal for hiring for hard-to-fill positions and ones with an immediate need.

However, sourcing can be incredibly time consuming and requires a great deal of knowledge and skill in order to locate and engage specific candidates who suit your needs. There are a number of things to consider when evaluating your sourcing strategy, form how much time you’ll dedicate to it to where candidate info will live once it’s sourced. Here are four key questions to answer in order for internet sourcing to become the answer to your recruiting needs.

How will you manage sourcing?

Sourcing involves research and is often hard to scale unless you are able to plan for it. You’ll most likely want to leverage a recruiting technology that allows you to quickly search and engage a pre-qualified community. This keeps you from wading through profiles and pages of candidates who may or may not be qualified. This is just one way internet sourcing allows you to be more targeted in your approach.

What channels will you source from?

There are so many places online that you can source candidates, from the most popular social networks to obscure, industry-specific message boards. One of the first things you’ll need to establish is what makes sense for your company and what will lead you to the types of candidates you’re looking for.

What kind of follow up will you use?

Even after using a tool that allows you to pre-qualify candidates, you’re still tasked with the responsibility of actually doing the sourcing. This is where you have the opportunity to shine as a company. I recommend developing a loose message template to streamline the process and free you up to identify ways to personally connect with the candidate. Always, always, always personalize your message and give them a reason to reply.

What happens after the sourcing?

After you’ve connected with a candidate, you’ll want to have a plan in place that takes the guess work out of what comes next. I’m a proponent of building and fostering your own community that you can guide candidates to after an initial conversation, or in some cases, even in your first message. No matter what your strategy looks like, the key to great internet sourcing is using a tools and technology designed to help you manage, engage, establish and maintain relationships with candidates beyond your mining tools, ATS or social recruiting.

 Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a workplace and technology strategist specializing in social media. She’s is the Chief Blogger & Founder of Blogging4Jobs. You can follow her on Twitter @jmillermerrell. 

How Social Recruiting Improves Your Time to Hire

By Jessica Miller-Merrell

As technology continues to improve all around us, one of the most significant effects it has on us is its ability to save us time. The way we use social media in recruiting is no exception to this trend, allowing us to source better and quicker than we have ever been able to. In fact, The Aberdeen Group’s study, “Getting Social About Sourcing,” revealed that companies that use social recruiting hire an average of 2.5 times quicker than those that don’t. Their cost per hire also decreases dramatically, which no doubt is due in part to the man-hours saved with each hire.

While most of us are probably using some sort of social recruiting, for the most part strategies tend to be lacking in focus and commitment. However, by using many aspects of social recruiting to develop a strategy, we can be more effective in our efforts.

Social listening

You probably know by now that social success comes from creating conversations and talking with, not at, candidates. But what you may not know is that much of the success is shaped before the conversation ever takes place. It begins with listening to the conversations all around you on social networks. What are people saying and asking about? What are other companies touting and what are people responding to? Social listening will also allow you to periodically check in on your efforts by evaluating whether or not you are ahead of your competition, if anyone is talking about you out there and of course, what’s working and what’s not. A little time spent listening could save you a lot of time because it gives you the data you need to know when your techniques need to be tweaked.

Job feeds

Some companies choose to utilize their social networks to create a social job feed. This is one of the most basic uses of social recruiting and is typically a company’s first step in making use of the tools they have available. The advantage of this type of job feed over  a job board or your careers page is that candidates have access to the most up-to-date postings and can even ask questions. Others can also share the postings through social, increasing your reach.

Social recruiting

While we’ve been talking about the overall term social recruiting throughout this article, the social recruiting I’m referring to here is the day-to-day social recruiting that has replaced much of the face-to-face recruiting we used to do. This is the grass roots recruiting that we’ve come to know and love, in digital form.

Sourcing

All too often we see short-lived, spray-and-pray strategies that are a gamble at best. In order to truly use social recruiting in a strategic way, you need to view it not only as another candidate source in which to fill single positions and job openings but also as a candidate pipeline source. This candidate pipeline should be powered by your social recruiting but candidate relationships should be fostered through a talent community that you direct them to and you manage.  

Employment branding

The opportunity to flex your employment brand across your social platforms is one of the best things about social recruiting. This also gives you the chance to leverage both the parts of your employment brand that you own (talent network, design, etc.) and the parts you don’t have control over but can benefit from (what people are saying about you, employee brand ambassadors, etc.). All of these pieces can come together to create a well-rounded image of your company that candidates can learn about through your social channels. 

 Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a workplace and technology strategist specializing in social media. She’s is the Chief Blogger & Founder of Blogging4Jobs. You can follow her on Twitter @jmillermerrell. 

2015 is the Year for HR and Recruiting to Shine

By Jessica Miller-Merrell

HR and recruiting haven’t always been considered assets in businesses. In fact, there was a time when HR was viewed just as a department for paper pushing, filing and compliance. Those of us in HR and recruiting know that although that was never the case, it is true that our roles have grown and changed over the years. Now, CEOs and executives are catching up and realizing how vital of a part we play. With leaders catching up to the curve and understanding the value HR and recruiting bring, 2015 truly is our year to shine.

It’s a great time for HR and Recruiting to strut its stuff because unemployment is at record lows and the demand for qualified workers with specialty knowledge is higher than it has ever been. This puts human resources and recruiting front and center because without the right people companies will suffer.

Embrace your role and step into the spotlight by using these three tactics.

Focus on onboarding and engagement

I think our natural tendency in HR and especially recruiting is to disengage when the employee becomes part of team. However, the need for onboarding and engagement goes far beyond the candidate experience and even first-day orientation. This year, look critically at how you engage candidates in their first 12 months of employment, as these are the most productive and vital times for ensuring that we retain our new and recent hires. This will not only increase your retention rate but will positively impact company culture and ultimately benefit your bottom line.

Proactive recruiting

If you’ve been sitting on the sidelines simply posting and hoping that candidates will see your job opening and apply, it’s time to step up to the plate and get what you want for your organization. One of the best ways to do this is to begin looking at the recruiting and hiring cycle as an actual relationship. This not only helps you reach the most qualified candidates but also helps you make the best matches and builds your candidate pipeline. In this extremely positive job market, we have to court them, interact with them and be responsive to exactly what they want and need.

Strategy. Strategy. Strategy

All that we do to reach candidates and retain employees, including the two tactics that I mentioned above, should be part an overall strategy that is developed thoughtfully and with our goals in mind. Those with a clear long-term plan of how talent plays a role in growing the organization are the ones who will be making an impact in 2015. Think beyond Excel formulas and spreadsheets and evaluate what your company and people need, and how you’ll get them there. Focus on how your talent strategies align with the organization’s goals to gain the respect that your department deserves while reaping also the benefits.

2015 holds a lot of great things for our industry, so get ready to dive in, take advantage of the headway we’ve made and gain some time in the spotlight. 

 Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a workplace and technology strategist specializing in social media. She’s is the Chief Blogger & Founder of Blogging4Jobs. You can follow her on Twitter @jmillermerrell.