And, in today’s economy, they need to protect them! Even the best of recruiters have found themselves laid off by their employer or at a dead end in their organization.
How can you protect yourself?
Get Peter Weddle’s new guide, The Career Fitness Workbook. It’s available at Amazon.com.
The book has a number of special features:
So, get your career in shape. Get The Career Fitness Workbook today!
Application Triggers for Passive Prospects
Given the workload of recruiters these days, few have the time to craft a brand new ad for each and every job they post on the Web. And even when a posting gets the attention it deserves, all too often it includes copy invented in the 1950s. The ad will highlight the “requirements and responsibilities” of the job and overlook altogether the content that triggers talented people to apply.
The Golden Rule of Recruiting is as simple as it is powerful. What you do to recruit passive prospects will also recruit active job seekers, but the converse is not true. If you want to reach and influence the four-fifths of the workforce who are currently employed, you must write a job posting that will trigger them to action.
Why? Because unlike active job seekers, passive prospects have a potent “inherent choice.” They don’t have to apply for a job; they can stay right where they are. And, if they’re at the top of their field, their current employer is doing everything possible to make sure they do.
So, content that describes the “requirements and responsibilities” of a position is important, but not sufficient to motivate a passive person to apply. What’s also necessary is a reason for them to act. Basically, you’re trying to convince them to do the one thing we humans most hate to do: change.
Change, of course, involves risk and most people are risk averse. So, the only way to persuade someone they should do something different in their career – like apply for a new job – is to trigger a response in them that is more powerful than their fear of change.
The OPFE Formula
There are five such triggers for passive prospects:
and
These factors make up the OPFE Formula for motivating passive prospects to apply. Collectively, they can be summarized in two categories of triggers that are powerful enough to overcome the perception of risk: Fear and Opportunity. The more clearly a job posting features either or both of those factors, the more likely it is to catch the attention and pique the interest of people who don’t want to change.
The key to using OPFE effectively is to recognize passive prospects’ inherent choice but focus on your inherent strength. Focus your ad on the advantages of your organization rather than the vulnerabilities of a prospect’s current employer. In other words, address the positive you own and avoid the negative you don’t. The prospect, in turn, will make the connection from your opportunity to their fear all by themselves.
For example, if your ad describes how the job will position a person to advance in their field (i.e., their standing), a passive prospect will recognize that Opportunity, and if appropriate, also confront their Fear that they are falling behind with their current employer. Similarly, if your ad focuses on the team spirit at your employer (i.e., its sociality), they will see the Opportunity they can derive from that culture, but may also acknowledge their Fear that the more competitive culture of their current employer is hurting them.
In the investment field, actions are often based on a risk-reward calculus. If the potential reward significantly outweighs the potential risk, an investor is making a rational decision in acting. Passive prospects perform the same calculus, but in reverse. They see a reward and then consider the risk.
To motivate them, therefore, a job posting must focus on the Opportunity of an opening so a prospect will tap into whatever Fear they may be feeling about their current position, boss, coworkers or employer. The outcome of that often unconscious deliberation is also a rational decision to act, but in this case it will be to apply for your opening.
Thanks for reading,
Peter
Visit me at Weddles.com
Be At Your Best With the Best Tools
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 Guides for Recruiting Success. Get yours today!
WEDDLE’s 2011/12 Guide to Employment Sites on the Internet. This is the 10th edition of the Guide the American Staffing Association called the “Zagat” of job boards and social media sites.
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.
Outside-the-Box Training Sessions
WEDDLE’s is pleased to offer a number of uniquely insightful and practical training programs for corporate and staffing firm recruiting teams. The courses can be tailored to your specific industry or career field focus and delivered onsite at your facility or via Webinar.
The programs include:
For more information about each program and its cost, please contact Peter Weddle at 203-964-1888 or peter@weddles.com.
Sourcing Your Own Career Success
As recruiters and HR professionals, we spend 33 percent of our day (or more) on-the-job and 100 percent of our job helping others to achieve career success.
Don’t our own careers deserve equal attention? Absolutely! And the one best way to do that is by sourcing career success with WEDDLE’s books. They include:
A Multitude of Hope: A Novel About Rediscovering the American Dream. This modern-day epic traces the journeys of three out-of-work professionals searching for answers in today’s seemingly nonsensical job market. Along the way, they discover the secret to “career security” and the pathway to real and lasting success.
The Career Fitness Workbook. This self-paced instructional guide introduces a complete regimen of activities that will help you successfully compete for and hang onto the job of your dreams. Think of it as “the habits of highly effective career activists.”
Recognizing Richard Rabbit. This fable for adults will entertain and delight you and help you out of the boxes that keep you from becoming the champion inside you. It is a novel and engaging way to recognize the talented person you are meant to be.
The Career Activist Republic. This blockbuster of a book provides a provocative yet positive assessment of the changing world of work in the American economy and describes an innovative strategy that will enable you to avoid the pitfalls and capture the opportunities in this new environment.
The Success Matrix: Wisdom from the Web on How to Get Hired and Not Be Fired. This anthology collects the best of Peter Weddle’s columns on job search and career success. It is the only book you’ll find that provides a candid and totally up-to-date look at how to get and stay ahead in today’s workplace.
In addition, read Peter Weddle’s WorkStrong blog for Career Activists. It’s a quick and easy way to stay on top of all of changes underway in today’s workplace and, best of all, it’s delivered right to your e-mailbox. Just click here to register.