Greenhouse, the recruiting software company, hosted its Recruiting Optimization Roadshow on Sept. 10. Because the roadshow made a stop in Chicago, I had the pleasure of attending a portion of the event, where I learned some tips to share with you lovely readers.
Through these Greenhouse events, Daniel Chait, the company’s CEO, said he’s learned that if you look away from the stage at events, there are many thoughtful and creative people out there. Along with the vendors, who are usually on stage, it’s attendees who can share their out-of-the-box ideas.
One of the more creative ideas he has heard was when a recruiter sent a personalized email to a candidate. Through social media, the recruiter learned the candidate loves dogs, so the recruiter shared a picture of his own dog, Peaches. It was a funny picture and would surely grab the attention of the job seeker.
Chait said that although executives know recruiting is critical to business, there’s still a struggle. However, there are straightforward things to do, such as using a structured interview process. There’s a vague feeling of uneasiness among recruiters, and Chait said that this should be replaced by systematized processes.
From this session, a presentation I caught was “Inbound Marketing for Recruiters: Becoming a Magnet for Top Talent.” SmashFly Technologies sponsored the session, and its director of product marketing, Chris Brablc, presented and facilitated group discussions.
When aiding in the candidate journey, the four main steps are to attract, engage, nurture and convert. Through job ads, attracting more candidates can include keyword-rich job titles. Brablc also suggests A/B testing of job ads (comparing two versions of the same ad) to help recruiters better identify what candidates really want.
Blogging can also be helpful, he said, and blogs should cater to candidates and aid them in their jobs search. To keep to a schedule, setting up a blog calendar can help recruiters stay on track with this portion of their online presence.
While companies can’t control their Glassdoor ratings, they can try to shape them. Asking current employees to rate the company could help boost ratings, and those high ratings can be boasted in recruiting channels.
On social media, posting content other than job listings could boost online presence. Brablc suggested curating content with RSS feeds, posting automatically and having the rest of the recruiting team share posts.
When the tables at the event broke off into discussion, participants shared best practices. Here’s a sampling of my notes:
- Naturally, most companies use LinkedIn for job postings.
- Aside from listing Glassdoor ratings, some companies list other rewards they’ve received, such as Crain’s list of Best Places to Work.
- Emphasize the company culture. One recruiter at my table said candidates are more interested in the company’s culture than the salary.
- When recruiting for technology roles, recruiters at my table said CareerBuilder and Monster weren’t very effective.
- One recruiter suggested Bullhorn Reach, which integrates social media to post jobs, and posts at different intervals, such as each day or every other day.
- Invenergy, which had three recruiters at my table, uses a women’s network as a platform for blogging and driving their diversity numbers. They’ve since created a recruiting subcommittee.
- If a candidate isn’t interested in any current open positions, they can choose to receive job notifications from a given company.
- Involve managers on individual teams to be part of the recruiting process by sending personalized emails. This leads to higher response rates from job candidates, compared with recruiters sending out their own emails.
- Day-in-the-life videos show employees going about their days, depicting what a job candidate would experience. Other videos tell what people like about a given company, and this is posted on their career site.
A few recruiters spoke up about events, such as quarterly talent days. These are used at Nike with presentations of different employees’ journeys, then time for networking. Another company uses candidates luncheons, inviting 10 to 20 candidates to meet with recruiting teams. A Free Beer Friday event was mentioned, where there’s an open house for anyone to attend, attracting an eclectic crowd.
Do you have any unique best practices around recruiting? Share in the comments!
