In This Edition of WEDDLE’s Newsletter:
- Next Practices: Analog Networking
- Next Practices: The Book
- A Prescription for the Soul – Peter’s New Novel About Boomers & the American Dream
- The Recruiting Resources You Deserve
- What’s Happening in the Job Market … That Could Happen to You.
Next Practices: Analog Networking
Despite the dominance of digital in our culture these days, there’s been a resurgence of interest in old fashioned analog technology. Rabbit ear TV antennas, vinyl records and (OMG) video cassettes are regaining some of their lost popularity. It’s a trend worth considering as we build out our strategy for talent acquisition.
The pundits are fond of opining that “state-of-the-art” technology will – take your pick – kill, obliterate, decimate, cause the extinction of any other technology deemed “out-of-date.” Reality, however, takes a different tact. While the new does often replace the old, it never actually eliminates it from our lives. It’s still around and, as with today’s interest in analog devices, it can be surprisingly popular.
That’s the logic behind analog networking. It uses such old fashioned technology as the telephone and face-to-face meetings to connect with and engage top talent.
Why? Well there are at least two reasons:
- First, the competition for talent is now fierce on social media sites like LinkedIn and Facebook. InMail and email circuits are filled to overflowing with recruitment messages that are all too often ignored or worse reported as spam.
- And second, there are undoubtedly some among those top prospects who still prefer to answer the phone or actually meet someone in person. They are digital natives who enjoy the more personal and intimate interactions of analog technology.
Not a Replacement, but Definitely an Addition
Analog networking is not a replacement for its digital cousin, but it should be an integral part of even the most advanced talent acquisition strategy. Doing it successfully, however, may require reinvigorating some skills that have grown flabby from disuse.
First, use or create venues that will attract top prospects in the demographic for which you’re recruiting. Some, like local chapter meetings of relevant professional societies, may already exist, but in other cases, you will have to create your own. Find an interesting guest speaker and send an old fashioned paper invitation to select individuals, inviting them to your “by invitation only” event.
Second, take the time before the meeting occurs to refresh (or develop) those verbal networking skills of yesteryear. In the real world, you have to discipline yourself to be in the moment and focus on the person with whom you’re speaking. Unlike with digital networking, you can’t multitask when you’re standing in front of someone. No less important, you must recruit, not sell. Go slowly so you actually get to know the person and they get to know you. The goal at this stage is to establish a connection, not fill an opening.
Remember, with most top talent, recruiting is like a romance novel. It takes more than a few chapters to get to the conclusion. So, make your first interaction a memorable one, and then follow up and follow up again, using analog networking. You’ll be tempted to fall back into the digital rut, but resist it. Your relationship is based on a personal connection, and it’s the quality of that experience which will convince even the most passive prospect to apply for your opening.
Analog recruiting is definitely not appropriate for every vacancy. It takes more time and considerably more effort than pounding out an InMail or email message. For those mission critical and very hard-to-fill jobs, however, it can be exactly the right tactic for the times. It enables a recruiter to stand out by creating a personal touch that contrasts sharply with the impersonal feel of social media. Like a vinyl record or video cassette, it’s a comfortable, even nostalgic way to communicate a message worth listening to.
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.
A Prescription for the Soul
Is the sun rising or setting on the American Dream?
A Prescription for the Soul answers that question with two parallel stories.
One is a coming-of-age tale about a group of American teenagers – Army brats – living on a small U.S. Army garrison in Verona, Italy in 1963. They spend their weekends exploring the ancient city of Venice … and themselves … as they try to understand the social and political upheaval taking place back home. And then without warning, they are thrust into a crisis that will shape their lives and their view of the American Dream.
The other is a coming-of-wisdom tale about those same teenagers – now aging Baby Boomers – living on the Gold Coast of Connecticut in 2007. They spend their days exulting in their exclusive class … the 1-percenters of 21st Century America … even as they confront the despair inflicted on others by their own corruption and greed. Then once again, they find themselves facing a crisis, but this one will shape the lives of their children and the legacy of their generation.
A timeless saga of growth and redemption and an unwavering examination of the challenges facing America today.
This historical novel is not yet in bookstores, but you can read a free excerpt and order a pre-publication copy of the book at OneStoryforAll.com.
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.
The Job Market From Your Customers’ Perspective
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.