It’s a recruiter’s dream. After a long and arduous interview process, you finally have an offer. Excited, you call the candidate. No answer. You leave a message, then an email. The week goes on. No response. You email again — maybe the first one went to spam? Nothing. As a last resort, you stealthily check their LinkedIn. Your candidate got a new job last week. You’ve been ghosted!
You wake up, drenched in a cold sweat. It was just a nightmare, but it’s an all-too-common reality for many recruiters.
Let’s face it. For many recruiters and candidates, the hiring process is abysmal.
Decoding nebulous job ads
Arcane application systems
Interpreting the nuances of PDF resumes
Increasingly long email chains
Fifth-round interviews
Indecision, indecision, indecision
It’s no wonder the best candidates walk and recruiters get burned out. There has to be a better way!
Outbound recruiting — a better way to fish
Outbound recruiting is a proactive method of sourcing talent. It involves actively searching for candidates who fit existing and upcoming company needs. Its counterpoint is inbound recruiting, in which recruiters post jobs and wait for the candidates to roll in.
Think about outbound vs. inbound in terms of fishing. Inbound recruiting is like setting down crab pots and waiting for crustaceans to wander in. Outbound, on the other hand, is going to where the fish are biting and trying to reel in a big one.
The value of (and justification for) inbound recruiting is its relatively light lift compared with outbound recruiting. Recruiters place ads in prime, SEO-optimized locations and bait with appealing job descriptions and benefits. Then they wait.
But what if you really want that big fish? Sure, you could hope that it finds its way into your relatively undifferentiated pot. Or you could go fishing for it.
Lightening the outbound lift
The question is how to improve the efficiency and lessen the strain of outbound recruiting while maintaining its effectiveness at landing targeted best-fit candidates. Here are a few strategies:
Call in the bots: Modern AI-powered recruiting technology can help find quality candidates by sifting through resumes and social media profiles, evaluating against hiring criteria and company needs, and identifying top prospects.
This has two immediate time-saving gains. For one, by tirelessly combing through prospect profiles, AI-assisted recruiting can locate more quality candidates. In addition, by automatically pre-screening candidates, AI can expedite qualification. Fewer interviews, fewer meetings, less cost.
DIY interviews: Hate trying to herd cats? Why not try a one-way interview? One-way interviews, also called asynchronous interviews, are a simple, efficient, and comfortable way for talent to introduce themselves.
Candidates record their answers to a predetermined series of questions on video, audio, or text. Hiring teams then thoroughly review the answers, getting a feel for the candidate’s personality, communication style, and ambitions. Neither party is put on the spot: Candidates can put their best foot forward, and hiring teams can move thoughtfully and deliberately. Meaningful insight without the logistical burden.
Hot calls: Canned, impersonal messages are a cringe-inducing convention of the hiring process. Flip the script. Rather than a sales pitch, recruiters can start a conversation. Ask questions, take a personal interest in what drives them, and find out what they’re looking for. Make the connections that will sustain the process.
Candidate engagement tools can help. Integrated with sourcing platforms, these tools can create custom email campaigns and templates, provide outreach reminders, and track engagement. Say more with less.
No time like the present
Recruiting has never been easy, but it’s wild out there right now. Work is experiencing a conflux of crises: global pandemic stress and burnout, the Great Resignation and widespread worker discontent, recession and inflation.
Employees are reevaluating their priorities. Do they want to spend their time working at a job that doesn’t meet their needs, desires, or values? With mid-career professionals resigning en masse, it’s a candidate’s market.
Candidates want jobs that prioritize their experience and wellness. Pizza parties aren’t enough anymore. The same goes for the hiring process. Transparency, reliable communication, and hands-on care are a must.
This puts a lot of pressure on recruiters navigating an increasingly demanding and unpredictable candidate pool while the rules of HR are being actively rewritten.
It is more important now than ever to empower recruiters and other HR professionals to adapt to the changing landscape. Building in automated support, streamlining interview logistics, and prioritizing meaningful interaction and insight can make that critical difference.
Change the way you fish and be ghosted no more!
Author
Shannon Pritchett is Head of Community at both hireEZ and Evry1 (which she co-founded in 2021). Prior to joining hireEZ, she served in a variety of recruiting roles and later leveraged her industry experience and expertise to hold leadership positions at Moxy, SourceCon, CareerXroads, and beyond. As a talent acquisition leader, she remains passionate about connecting companies with their most valuable asset — people.