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 outside-the-box Recruiting Tips
- An Association Directory organized by career field & industry
- Information on the International Association of Employment Web Sites
- And much, much more!
So, don’t delay! Visit Weddles.com today. And, make sure you tell your colleagues about the site, as well.
The Right Words for the Right Recruiting Strategy
There is no such thing as a “passive job seeker.” At best, such individuals are “prospective new hires” and even that term understates the significant differences between traditional employment candidates and these employed top performers.
Finding a more accurate term with which to describe such elusive uber-candidates is more than an exercise in semantics. Top talent see themselves differently, so we have to as well, if we want to engage and recruit them. The better our vocabulary aligns with their self-image, the more likely they are to recognize the value proposition of our openings.
To find the right term, we must be very explicit about which cohort of the population we are defining. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has found that, at any point in time, active job seekers comprise about 16 percent of the workforce. There are, of course, many top performers among those in transition, but they are clearly not passive either in their behavior or their self-image.
While it’s tempting to define the other 84 percent of the population as passive, that would be a mistake, at least for recruiters. There is a subset of that population – probably similar in size to the cohort of active job seekers – who will never consider leaving their current employer. For that reason, we are seeking a term that defines only the remaining 68 percent of the workforce – those who are top performers, currently employed and willing to consider a new or better job.
How does that group see themselves? Certainly, not as job seekers. In fact, even when they are in transition, they consider their behavior and goal to be very different from that of people looking for work. They are operating as “career activists,” and their goal is to advance in their field, not find a job.
Recruiting Career Activists
From time-to-time, a debate will break out about what factors are most likely to trigger a passive, top performer to take a new job. Some argue for money, others for benefits, and still others for challenging work. While they’re all important, however, research indicates that – all other things being equal – it’s the nature of the work experience that is most likely to sway a career activist.
Career activists are driven to excel at their work. They not only want to perform at their peak, they want to be part of an organization and a team that does so, as well. Therefore, they see the culture and values of their employer and peers as critically important to their success. They can do well where the work experience isn’t a good fit for them, but they can only do their best work where it is.
What does that mean for our recruiting strategy and tactics? We have to look up, not down. What we do to recruit the best talent will also recruit mediocre talent, but the converse is not true. We must design our corporate career site, job postings, social media strategy and recruiting process for career activists, not job seekers. We must communicate the opportunity, not the opening; the accomplishments of our coworkers as well as our nifty facilities and generous benefits.
That’s admittedly a dramatic departure from what most of us are doing. And yet, according to survey after survey, most of us are also struggling to recruit passive top performers. We are, to rif on a phrase, “doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” So, it’s time for a change. And, it begins with the words we use to describe the talent we want.
Thanks for reading,
Peter
Visit me at Weddles.com
A One-of-a-Kind Recruitment Tool
WEDDLE’s Directory of Employment Web Sites is a one-of-a-kind database of job boards, social media sites, career portals, aggregators, employment-related search engines, job ad distribution companies, recruitment blogs and other recruiter resources. Its 9,000+ entries are organized by occupational field, industry, geographic focus and other specializations (e.g., diversity, veterans).
If you want to:
- Develop a pinpoint targeting strategy for your recruitment advertising,
- Identify the best social media sites for connecting with top talent,
- Improve the quality of the applicants you source online,
- Sell products and services to job boards and other employment Web-sites
- Sell products and services to job boards and other employment Web-sites
then the WEDDLE’s Directory is for you!
The database is delivered to users online and is both internally searchable and suitable for downloading into a CRM system.
Click here to order your copy or contact WEDDLE’s at 203-964-1888 for additional information.
2014 User’s Choice Award Winners
If you’re tired of reading the pundits’ picks for the best employment sites on the Web, here’s the alternative you’ve been looking for.
Each year, WEDDLE’s hosts an online poll for job seekers and recruiters to vote for THEIR picks of the best sites. We call it the User’s Choice Awards.
To see the 2014 winners, click here.
To cast your vote for next year’s winners, 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.