by Brian Weidner on December 14, 2011
At Career Tree Network we specialize in assisting Wisconsin healthcare organizations to source candidates for difficult hiring needs. When a client calls, they usually have a slate of zero candidates, zero leads, and zero prospects. Our client has no candidates in their funnel and needs help. Typically they have already tried the traditional sources and have not seen any result.
As you can imagine, this is a difficult starting position. Yet, it’s where nearly all of our conversations begin. From that point we develop a customized recruitment campaign to source candidates and work hard to produce results. With our sole focus on the state of Wisconsin, we rely on repeat business from satisfied customers.
Our approach will often leverage our job boards but then also incorporates a variety of recruitment strategies to produce results.
At Career Tree Network, we can help with your most challenging hiring needs.
by Brian Weidner on October 15, 2011
I went to a conference recently and heard the speaker say, “The Fortune is in the Follow up”. This is similar to the advice that I gave to a recent job seeker who was frustrated when he didn’t hear back from an employer. My advice went something like this, “The key to success is learning how to follow up without becoming annoying.”
In a recruitment context, the importance of follow up is clear.
The best recruiters will use the right messages, over the right medium and at the right time so that potential candidates remain engaged with their organization.
When possible, the follow-up process should be automated so that it happens without additional work…similar to this blog update where I write one message and many people subscribe to it via email. Follow up can be time consuming…but thankfully technology is here to help.
by Brian Weidner on August 11, 2011
I have a lot of clothes and don’t do a good job of keeping track of everything I own. Sometimes, I look in the back of my closet and find a great shirt that I haven’t worn in a few years. It’s not dusty or out of style (in my opinion) but rather has been sitting back there, patiently waiting for me to find it. Once I find it, it’s a happy moment. I should have known that it was always available to me, but I simply forgot that the option existed. There had been many occasions when that shirt would have been nice to wear, but instead I had to look for other options.
Can you relate to this story? Look in the back of your closet tonight, are there clothes there that you had completely forgot about?
Let’s apply this to recruitment. Typically organizations look to source new candidates to fill an open position. They place ads on our websites, make cold calls, send direct mail campaigns, go to career fairs…all to attract the attention of new candidates. I strongly support candidate sourcing, and I encourage you to use Career Tree Network as much as possible….but at the same time recruiters often lose sight of the candidates patiently waiting in the back of their “closets”.
There are candidates who you have already worked with who might like to consider your current hiring need. Remember last year, when you filled that open PT position, but had another candidate who was not selected? How have you kept in touch with them? Do they know about your current hiring need?
There are many examples that I could share, but the bottom line here is that often the best candidates are those who are already familiar with your organization. They have already been part of your hiring process, and just need to be resurfaced. As you work with candidates you must plan to keep in touch and look to build a relationship so that you can reconnect for future opportunities down the road.
At Career Tree Network, we have developed some interesting systems and strategies on how to execute this concept. Please give us a call if you’d like to discuss further.
by Brian Weidner on June 14, 2011
We recently completed an upgrade of our websites. I am always apprehensive to make changes because in the short-term, the remodeling process usually causes a few issues. At this point everything seems to be fully operational…which is a reason to celebrate.
If you use our websites for your recruitment efforts, you’ll notice some nice changes to make your job easier and increase our site effectiveness.
If you haven’t used our system before, this is a great time to give it a try.
At the same time, I invite you to think about how you can be innovative in your work. What new technology can you utilize? How can you make your organization more attractive to top talent?
by Brian Weidner on May 9, 2011
Many organizations participate in career fairs. At these events recruiters have an opportunity to network and interact directly live and in-person with candidates. Organizations are upset when few candidates come to their table. Organizations lure candidates to come talk with them by handing out free logo’ed trinkets. Relationships are built at these events and many great conversations take place.
But then at certain organizations a strange thing happens when the recruiter gets back to the office…
When a candidate calls to ask a follow-up question she receives a voice mail greeting that states that “individual calls to candidates can not be returned”. So if she leaves a message about her interest in your organization, you won’t return the call?
With the failed phone call attempt, she might try sending an email to the address on the business card given at the career fair. Hmmmm…..will sending an email to : hr@organization.com really be seen by a live person?
She decides to try it anyway. (A few seconds later) Darn, an auto-response. “Thanks for your message. Please visit our website to learn more about our organization. Individual emails can not be returned.”
She visits the website and decides to go ahead and submit an application. After getting started, she realizes that your application is asking to recreate her resume in your system. Wow, this is going to take a long time. She wonders if she is really that interested to move forward? And even if she does submit the application, what are the odds that it will be seen by a live person? With frustrations mounted she says: “This stinks, I’ll just apply somewhere else. Or maybe I’ll call that nice headhunter that I met. He gave me his cell phone number and told me to call him at any time.”
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After working with candidates for many years, I’ve obtained some very interesting feedback on their view of the job search process and the associated frustrations. This concept of the recruiter in the glass office can be most frustrating to candidates. I know that the recruiter is there, but I can’t reach them.
Recruiters are busy and often don’t have time to handle individual requests from candidates. Especially because many candidates are unqualified for their current hiring needs. This is understandable, but yet at the same time…I see it as a big problem to be solved.
In my mind, we are in the people business. If we close the door on people, we are not doing our job as recruiters. When we close the door on unqualified candidates, we also close the door on the highly qualified ones.
One way to solve this problem is to incorporate a Sourcing Model. This would involve a dedicated person to source candididates for your critical hiring needs. This person would attend career fairs and be in the business of candidate communication via any method (Phone, Email, Text Messaging, Fax, In-person, Facebook, Twitter, Carrier Pigeon, etc.). Once a candidate has been deemed qualified for a current hiring need, they would be passed along to the Recruiter for an Interview. The Recruiter would also screen candidate applications, work with internal stakeholders, etc.
Technology and other cultural shifts have made it easier and more natural for one-to-one communication to occur. As recruiters we need to be more accessible to candidates or be willing to pay headhunters to build relationships on our behalf.