Modeled after Pinterest, Weddles.com offers four channels of information and resources found nowhere else on the Web. And, one of those channels is specifically tailored for those Employers and Recruiters who are determined to find the best talent for their openings!
What’s in the Employers & Recruiters channel at Weddles.com? There are:
- Books & Tools for recruiting & sourcing excellence
- An archive of Next Practice Recruiting Tips
- An Association Directory organized by career field & industry
- Insights on Career Activists – the passive prospects who are so hard to recruit
- And much, much more!
So, make Weddles.com the place where you start your business day! And, encourage your colleagues to join you there, as well.
Next Practice: Speed Applications
The statistics are jaw-dropping. According to a recent CareerBuilder survey, 60 percent of job seekers say they’ve left an employer’s application process because it was too complicated to complete. A staggering eight-out-of-ten (82 percent) said there were simply too many steps involved for what is often a very low return on their investment of time and effort. In an era when employers are desperate to find and hire qualified candidates, their application process is ensuring they won’t.
This problem doesn’t just affect the quantity of applicants that arrive on your desktop (or tablet or phablet or smart phone). It also undermines the quality of your new hires, as well. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics better than four out of five members of the workforce are what might best be described as passive prospects. They’re employed and often willing to consider a career advancement opportunity, BUT unlike active job seekers, they will not tolerate application forms only the IRS could love.
Now, I realize that application forms are often the mangled product of too many hands. By the time the lawyers, the HR Department itself and occasionally even overly zealous recruiters get done with them, they can require everything from a complete salary history, a list of references and (hard as it is to believe) even the passwords to a candidate’s social media accounts. It’s no wonder that the flow of top quality talent has slowed to a trickle
So, what’s the Next Practice? I call it “speed applications.” Like speed dating, it’s not a commitment to a long term relationship, but rather, just an expression of interest on the part of two parties to get to know each other a bit better (at another time and place). In other words, speed applications aren’t applications at all – so the lawyers can relax; they’re nothing more (or less) than a simple agreement to communicate some more.
How Do They Work?
The traditional application process has become so freighted with legal requirements and information gathering that it’s lost its original purpose. At its most basic level, an application has always been an offer of communication. Evaluation, while important, is not a necessity, at least in the beginning. Instead, what’s most important in the early stages of an application is for two parties simply to determine if it makes sense to talk some more … kinda’ like speed dating.
For that reason, speed applications use a “form” that is stripped down to its barest essentials. Obviously they include both bio and contact information, so name, address, phone number and email address. In addition, it should provide a visual representation of the mental check list typically used by the two parties in a speed dating situation to make their go-no go decision. To do that, it should present the requirements stated in the job posting in a simple, concise list and ask the candidate simply to check those they meet.
That’s it. Time invested by the candidate? Maybe five minutes. Probability they’ll drop out? I’d guess between 15 and 20 percent – not because they can’t stand the form, but because the uncomplicated list of requirements makes it unblinkingly clear when they’re not qualified to apply. Benefit to the employer? More expressions of interest by top flite candidates who can then be contacted for additional information and vetting. Ultimate outcome? More interaction with top prospects enabling recruiters to sell them on the value proposition of an open position and thus increase their willingness to complete a formal application that will make the lawyers smile.
Thanks for reading,
Peter
Visit me at Weddles.com
Next Practices – The Book
Best Practices are so yesterday! They are sourcing and recruiting techniques designed for a time that has passed.
Next Practices are strategies and tactics for winning the real War for the Best Talent – the one you actually face today and will face tomorrow. They modernize your approach to:
- Recruitment Advertising
- Social Recruiting
- Candidate Engagement
- Optimizing the Candidate Experience
- Managing Your Own Recruiting Career
so you maximize your success.
The book is composed of short, straight-to-the-point essays that can be read in ten or fifteen minutes and still transport you to a whole new dimension in the state-of-the art for recruiting and sourcing talent. With titles like Become a Talent Whisperer, Post-Social Recruiting, The Inconvenient Truth of Recruiting and Don’t Post a Job, Advertise Respect, they are sure to entertain and enlighten you.
So, don’t recruit with yesterday’s techniques. Get Next Practices and start recruiting right now with the next generation of recruiting mastery.
The book is available on Amazon. Click here to place your order.
What’s Happening In the Job Market?
Despite all the happy talk about the growth in job openings, it’s still incredibly hard to find a GOOD job and one that pays anywhere near what it costs to live in this country. That’s as true for recruiters as it is for everyone else in the workforce.
So, what’s going on?
There are plenty of talking heads opining on cable and more than enough blog posts and magazines offering their take on the situation. But, wouldn’t it be nice to look into this situation and its causes without having to endure a lot of self-appointed punditry?
Well, now you can. Read Peter Weddle’s novel about the 21st Century world of work in America called A Multitude of Hope. It uses the fictional tale of three job seekers to explore what’s happening to individual working men and women in a workplace and job market churning with change.
To read a FREE excerpt of A Multitude of Hope, click here.
The Recruiting Resources You Deserve
The best recruiters use the best resources to get the job done. And, when it comes to reaching top talent online, their choice is clear. It’s WEDDLE’s Books. Get yours today!
WEDDLE’s Guide to Employment Sites on the Internet. This is the 11th edition of the Guide the American Staffing Association called the “Zagat” of job boards and social media sites.
The Talent Sourcing & Recruitment Handbook. This is Shally Steckerl’s tell-all guide to his sourcing secrets and cybersleuthing for hard-to-find talent.
WEDDLE’s Guide to Association Web Sites. This book details the recruiting resources and capabilities that are available at the Web-sites of over 3,000 professional and technical associations.
Finding Needles in a Haystack. This one-of-a-kind guide lists over 25,000 keywords and keyword phrases, across 5,400 job and position titles in 28 industries and professions.