 |
|
Insider News: How to Attract the “A” List Before the internet and internet job boards companies paid by the word and would cringe if they felt the need to put their logo or significant details about the position they were trying to fill. The local newspaper loved it as the advertiser was paying by the letter and column inch. Deadlines to place the ad could often also be a pain as most papers needed a minimum 2 working days to schedule the ad. Today we can post on multiple job boards, have 24 hour access to post a new opening, and have an unlimited amount of space to advertise for that A List candidate at a nominal cost. Still today, companies tend to post too little information about the position. Granted, the whole job description may be too much information and typically job descriptions are not an exciting read, but many times a barren posting will yield a lot of questions from candidates asking for more detailed information on the opportunity or will get skipped over altogether. A balanced ad which hits the core skills and duties in the first two paragraphs followed up by the heavy details of the opportunity is an excellent way to balance your posting. Interested candidates will continue to read and qualify themselves based on the content details. An uninterested candidate will self select to skip the posting based on the first two or three paragraphs. Since it is easy for a candidate to send in their resume with a couple of clicks, many times recruiters are swamped with candidates who believe their volume submittals may eventually land an interview. Keeping up with the deluge of candidates can pose a problem for recruiters. A quick way to get through the stack of potential candidates is to prepare a quick list of several questions based on the skills you are seeking and ask the candidate to answer these questions in your first follow up email. Basically, you are eliciting a mini e-mail interview based on 3-7 questions. This assignment will allow many of your candidates to self select out of the candidate pool. Those who respond demonstrate their sincere interest in the opportunity. Also, the response will give you an idea of the applicant’s written communication skills and attention to detail. The key to making the request work is to thank them for applying and asking a moderate number of questions to learn more about their skills. The list should be standardized and sent to every applicant with the same instructions. In a cut and paste world this is a simple task for recruiters to perform. This method will narrow your candidate pool and give a candidate who did not target his/her resume the opportunity to have a second chance to focus their experiences to your specific opportunity. By using a combination of a more detailed ad and a brief email interview follow up, you should narrow the list of qualified candidates to invest your phone and in person interview time with. Attracting the A List is clearly a process of providing superior information to attract superior candidates! For more information, please visit http://www.qat.com/staffing.asp. |
PAST ISSUES