On April 14th, we hosted a webinar, How to stand out as a recruiter in a candidate-driven market. Thank you, to all who tuned in!
This webinar features Daxtra software expert, Chris Wirt and Recruiter Accelerator Founder, Clark Willcox, sharing valuable information on recruitment software and strategies that are sure to make an impression on candidates and greatly impact your sourcing results.
What is a candidate-driven market?
Market conditions are ever-changing, unraveled by the economy, supply and demand, with more open jobs and fewer candidates to fill those jobs. Simply put, it’s where candidates have the advantage over employers and staffing agencies. We’ve seen this trend grow tremendously in the last year, on the heels of the pandemic.
Jobs are abundant and top-tier candidates are often scarce or difficult to reach. This delays time to fill positions. According to recent reports, “The average nationwide time-to-fill is 25 business days.” Conversely, the best candidates are off the market in 10 days. What this means for recruiters is that speed to market is critical.
A candidate-driven market also means that a strong internal talent database is crucial. The advantage here is to have a database with rich, current and clean data that is searchable. After all, the data in your candidate database may be your most valuable asset.
The re. use of diverse strategies in your approach to sourcing is also key in getting the results you desire, like great search results and candidate responses.
'The use of diverse strategies in your approach to sourcing is also key in getting the results you desire, such as using technology to proactively reach out to candidates'
Outreach in the form of compelling messaging to prompt responses and grab the attention of candidates is key.
Formulating strategies
The combination of using software and automation along with creative messaging, cadence and outreach is the goal. Using new software and changing tactics can give you the advantage you desire - speaking to and placing more candidates.
What we hope to achieve is:
- Data integrity – for more productive outreach
- Reduce time to fill – to improve speed to market
- Automation use – to stay on course and get ahead of the competition
- Benefit focused messaging – for higher conversion
- Candidate engagement – to reduce ghosting
Software
Improving the quality of the data within your database with intelligent recruitment software means you'll be able to conduct more proactive outreach from the "central source of truth" within your ATS.
Daxtra Capture is the solution used to automate the process of getting rich-in-content data delivered directly into your ATS in a way that is customized to fit specific workflows and data needs. Enriched candidate data is loaded from dedicated email addresses, website portals and shared network folders to your database, without duplication.
Another beneficial solution is Daxtra Search Nexus which integrates within the iframe of your ATS and acts as the central source of sourcing and matching for your recruitment processes. This is the next level in candidate search and sourcing, connecting candidates to jobs and finding the best available talent fast.
These solutions allow for more placements to be made from your database, reducing job board and social spending year over year.
Leveraging technologies to make sure that you're improving speed to market in a candidate-driven landscape is imperative. Getting in touch with candidates as soon as you have an open job rec and making sure that you are first in line is going to ensure your success with more placements.
Recruiting professionals using automation today stay on course and increase their competitive advantage with sourcing strategies that help surface candidates who are the best fit. Recruitment automation also allows recruiters to be more focused on the things they enjoy about their job – engaging with candidates and selling them the position. It also puts them ahead of the competition by speeding up placements.
Strategies
The current sourcing landscape is replete with a lack of candidate engagement, lower reply rates, a crowded recruiter market, money being spent on the wrong tools and no overall strategy in mind.
Using LinkedIn tools can be very effective, but you have to have a solid plan of action before investing.
The four pillars of the sourcing system with LinkedIn Navigator are:
- Positioning
- Messaging
- Prospecting
- Automation
In positioning yourself on LinkedIn take the opportunity to brand yourself by creating a strong presence on your LinkedIn profile. Your profile picture should be a quality shot that is tightly cropped for better viewing on mobile devices. The photo should hold the qualities you wish to instill like trust and respect.
You also want to choose wisely for your LinkedIn profile’s background image. This is your opportunity to create a positive first impression.
Just as important, is your profile headline. It’s the first line people see on your profile. Use it to show what you’re capable of and what you do creatively and compellingly.
Don’t neglect your About section. Take the opportunity to tell your story. Also be sure to fill out your work experience, add testimonials and your wins and in the process of all of this - be sure to avoid overused buzzwords.
In messaging, the goal is to realize a mutual benefit. Be proactive by consistently getting messages out there, but understand holistically, that a good relationship involves benefitting mutually from working together. Offer insights or collateral that may be of benefit and work to establish a relationship.
Creative and compelling messaging goes a long way in grabbing the attention of candidates, but so does timing and consistency. Keep it simple and consistent and there will be a payoff in the end.
Prospecting by curating the right list using LinkedIn Sales Navigator is also very important. A high number of Navigator users don’t go past the search bar. There are several tips and filters that will make your prospecting on LinkedIn much more successful.
The benefits you reap with these targeted LinkedIn sourcing strategies are more connections, higher numbers of replies and accepted offers.
Automated Recruitment Software + Strategy = Success
When you implement both automated recruitment software and conscientious LinkedIn Navigator strategies you have a recipe for success.
The benefits include:
- More placements from local database
- Reduction in job board and social spend
- Over 40% increase in recruiter productivity
- Better ROI across your tech stack
To stand out in a market where the recruiter is at the disadvantage is a challenge, but not a challenge you can’t overcome. Implementing automated solutions into your workflows to build a stronger database and tools to search over that database gives you the advantage of more time to dedicate to one-on-ones and building relationships with candidates.
Automation also allows you time to spend on more focused social sourcing strategies that help build your brand and visibility on LinkedIn. And this visibility helps you stand out as a recruiter even in a candidate-driven market.
