Developing a Forward-looking Sourcing Strategy

Lou Adler, President of The Adler Group

Winning the war for talent is not as difficult as it’s made out to be. All you have to do is rid yourself of HR-think and adopt the latest consumer marketing and advertising programs for finding more customers.

On one level, it’s evident that a few progressive companies are now rapidly applying consumer marketing principles in order to attract top performers. The keys here are the use of compelling and creative messaging, the adoption of search engine marketing concepts to ensure high visibility, and a cultural shift recognizing the unique needs of top performers.

Unfortunately, most companies are stuck in an evolutionary time warp, using archaic ideas and concepts and wondering what’s wrong. Consider yourself one of these relics of recruiting antiquity if you’re still using any of these outdated recruiting processes:

1. Skills-based boring ads crafted to eliminate the unqualified, rather than attract the best
2. Job postings that are hard to find, especially if candidates need to use pull-down menus to find your jobs on your career site
3. A ponderous application process that prevents candidates from “just looking”
4. The use of a transactional sales model emphasizing compensation and jobs rather than careers and opportunities

With this in mind, here are a few fundamental ground rules you’ll want to consider if you want to implement a forward-looking, consumer marketing approach to sourcing top performers:

1. Target the Early Birds, not the Leftovers. If many of the best people you find tell you they’ve just accepted another job or are close to it, you have a leftover sourcing strategy in place. The best people, fully-employed, but somewhat concerned about their future growth, tend to look for new careers by first networking with close associates or calling a respected recruiter. If nothing happens, they’ll expand their networking efforts, start Googling for jobs, do some company and industry research, and maybe start looking at some niche sites. One of the last things they’ll do is look at a company’s career site and apply for a job. An early bird sourcing strategy involves figuring out what top people do when they just enter the job market and then make sure your messages are found by them as soon as they start looking.
2. Provide candidates an opportunity to "just look" rather than forcing them to buy. When just entering the job market, the best people aren’t ready to apply for a job, they just want to explore different opportunities. Most companies don’t provide this opportunity. For one thing, it’s hard to find jobs on most career sites unless registering or submitting a resume. Companies also make it hard for candidates to talk with recruiters or hiring managers on an exploratory basis before formally applying. Even worse, most job descriptions are turn-offs, written more to prevent unqualified people from applying rather than offering the best people an opportunity to just consider your company as a place to explore career opportunities.
3. Stop using job descriptions that define and attract average people. When you think about it, job descriptions listing skills, experience, qualifications and academics really represent average people, certainly not top performers. Worse, since they’re boring and exclusionary, only average people would consider applying. For proof, just think about why so few top people apply for your jobs. If you want to write job postings that attract better people, consider the two types of traditional job descriptions great people ignore. The first group represents those who thoroughly enjoy doing the work involved and have many of the skills listed. The second group are those who see the work involved as a learning experience or stepping stone to something else while not having all of the qualifications listed. Few job descriptions are written to attract these two groups of top performing people. For better results, have your ads start by describing what’s in it for the candidate as well as the challenges and opportunities.
4. Eliminate job requisitions and archaic architecture as a core process and start using talent hubs. The only reason we post job requisitions is because this was the business model that made the most sense for job boards. Using outdated technology like pull-downs to find these boring jobs exacerbates the problem. A talent hub combines all similar jobs, e.g., all ASIC designers, accountants, tax advisors, etc., together in a microsite. By offering a bigger target, a site like this will attract more of the right people if it’s designed using the latest search engine marketing techniques. Once at the site, viewers can then be offered multiple opportunities to stay connected with the company or apply for a specific job.
5. Drop the transactional sales model and implement consultative selling. While you want to try new marketing and advertising before everyone else, you’ll want to slow down the actual recruitment process to a pace consistent with the way in which top performers make important career decisions. Too many recruiters rush to close, turning off top people who are considering your job as an important career move. Although you want to push your candidates forward at a reasonable pace, there are ways to do this that are seen as advising rather than pressuring.

A forward-looking consumer-based sourcing strategy starts by rapidly adopting the latest Internet consumer marketing and advertising concepts. A critical part of this is recognizing the unique needs of top performers as they just enter the job market. How they look for jobs and the criteria they use to select one over another is far different than the average performer. These differences must be incorporated into every stage of the sourcing and recruiting process. Yet most companies still cling to the outdated idea that a one-size-fits-all process will work.

Start your quest for winning the war for talent by developing a consumer-based advertising and recruiting approach to sourcing. Begin here by benchmarking some of the best consumer marketing companies in the business. Then don’t be surprised if you wind up buying a new TV, drinking a different brand of beer, or having lunch at some fast-food place you can’t tell your spouse about.