Applying and Recruiting Like It’s 1999?

A few have missed the mark when you look at how some employers and recruiters recruit and some jobseeker behavior. This new labor market requires innovative approaches and focus.

For jobseekers, Sending out hundreds of resumes is like throwing spaghetti at a wall. Receiving unqualified applications from a job ad doesn't help anyone.

For employers and recruiters, first, consider why someone would want this job at your company. That is the message you need to broadcast. Would you like this job? If not, you need to work on the role until it's desirable, be it adjusting pay, work-life balance, opportunities for advancement, or the responsibilities involved.

Then, put the message in front of people where they actually spend time. And that location is often online via a smartphone or tablet. It's places like social media sites, other popular online destinations, and niche sites relevant to that person's career.

So, at minimum, your advertisement must be mobile responsive and pushed in front of the right audience: people with the skills you seek who will add to your existing culture with your community.

Once you've written a job advertisement that sounds like it was written by a human being and placed it in front of people doing the type of work you need, imagine what a likely candidate is to do when first seeing the ad.

First, they will visit your company's website to check you out.

1. Is it professional and inviting?

2. How about the job listings? Are they easy to search?

3. Do you expect people to create a password-protected account?

4. Do you ask people to upload their resumes and copy all the information into little boxes?

5. Do you have a test, video, or application they must complete before talking to anyone? If so, please consider getting rid of it.

1999 thinking is, "If they want the job, they will jump through hoops for me to show they want it." Modern thinking is that this person is often on a mobile phone and already has a job, so they need more motivation to jump through unnecessary hoops.

Needing to create an account, fill out a lengthy application, or take a test are all choke points at which you will lose many potential applicants. You will also never even know they came to your site in the first place interested in the job.

Consider making it easy for potential employees to upload a resume and invite them to, even if the type of job they want with your company isn't listed.

If your opening is the type where applicants may not have a resume, provide a SHORT application and get the rest later. Ask only for name, email, address, last employer, and title. Do not require a phone number. Most people will not want to give it out on an unknown career site.

Letting people apply with LinkedIn and logins from major job boards will increase your applicant pool, but those applicants may be less qualified because it's so easy to apply to many, many jobs this way.

Potential savvy candidates may also look at Google, Glassdoor, Indeed job ratings, and Reddit. They may contact past employees via LinkedIn You should know what applicants see when they research your company.

So now you've sparked the interest of a promising candidate. Think of the following steps more like a series of two-way discovery calls. Let the potential employee get to know their manager and speak to current employees.

Give clear guidelines about the pay range for the job rather than demanding to know what the client earns now (illegal in some US states!) or their earning goals.

Focus on the role's positives rather than grilling the applicant like a steak and looking for flaws. Remember the Gallup 12? These 12 top indicators of employee engagement ring true to me—and salary is not one of them.

When you have done the necessary work to attract and engage quality applicants, you have a much better chance of hiring the employee you want. They will be happier with their decision to come on board, leading to a high probability of things working out.  

Party like it's 1999, but don't recruit or apply that way.

My employer, NAS Recruitment Innovation, can help with your messaging and career site.

All opinions are mine.

Jessica L. Benjamin