Does it feel like the top candidates on the market are avoiding you?

They hardly ever reply to your emails or InMails and the applicant quality from your ads is getting worse?

Or maybe you can’t even find them and wonder if they actually exist?

If you’re using the tried and tested techniques that your managers learnt a long time ago to find and engage candidates . . . then sorry, but the good candidates have probably been avoiding you for a while now.

They’re probably not using Groucho disguises, but they could certainly be employing some of the following tactics . . .

Ignoring your messages and ads

Blocking your email or phone number

Removing keywords from their Social profiles

Using old email addresses/aliases

Not using LinkedIn (surely not!)

Unsubscribing from your database

. . . and who can blame them

Most highly skilled candidates (that recruiters find easily) have been hounded every day for years. It’s not that they don’t want to speak to great recruiters. They actually do!

The problem is that they hardly ever come across great recruiters i.e. those who can meet their needs. They can’t afford to waste valuable time speaking to queues of people who offer them completely unsuitable jobs and who obviously don’t care about them.

Recruitment should work better than this!

Our huge Recruitment industry mainly exists because something is missing from a candidate’s life or because they’re not entirely happy at work. Even the most sought after candidates NEED Recruiters to help them improve their lives. So why are so many recruiters ignoring what candidates themselves want or are seemingly oblivious to it?

‘I’m offering them an amazing role – why aren’t they replying?’

If your message or ad is about what you or the company wants but doesn’t match the candidate’s personal needs, then I’m afraid it’s straight to the delete button for all but the most desperate candidates.

Here’s a crazy idea . . . .

Offer the candidate what THEY want (not what YOU want)

We’d love to but how do I know what they want? Do THEY even know what they want if they’re passive?

Being a recruiter isn’t easy – you’ve probably been told to start acting like Marketers as well as Sales people and now we’re going to tell you to be Psychologists too. Psychology shouldn’t be a stranger to recruiters as the best sales people, whether they realise it or not, are using psychology in their day to day business.

It’s time for Recruitment to learn from Marketing and replicate the techniques that work to help candidates achieve a positive life change. Don’t waste time and energy selling them stuff that they don’t want.

How do I know what they want?

I’m afraid you can’t make all of your top candidates reply to all of your communication, but if you can start to see the world through their eyes the results may surprise you

The following 3 steps should set you on the path to higher candidate response rates by understanding your candidate’s motivations better and showing them that you can meet their needs.

Step 1 – Search as if you’re a candidate, not a recruiter

Finding top talent can be particularly hard, especially in the Tech industry, and it’s essential to understand your market and candidates well enough to know who the role should appeal to and why.

You will rarely find the best candidates on LinkedIn or job boards alone and you certainly won’t find hidden ones using basic keyword searches or writing boring demanding adverts that don’t grab attention and show candidates what’s in it for them.

Use tools such as Sourcehub or SourceBreaker to quickly improve your Boolean search strings and find new candidates that your competitors can’t. Check industry sites to add semantic words to your search such as ‘implementing’, ‘configuring’, ‘designing’ to dig out candidates who may write their profiles without obvious keywords (or are hiding from recruiters!)

More importantly, find out where your candidates hang out, learn about their world and embrace it wholeheartedly

Step 2 – Understanding your candidate’s needs

You’ve probably seen Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs at some point, but if you need an entertaining refresh watch this

We can apply Maslow’s Hierarchy to the world of recruitment by relating the levels to a person’s career

Before you think about messaging, phoning or even trying to advertise, consider where your target candidates are on the Hierarchy now. Look at their profile or CV and for signs of where they are on their career path such as

How long ago did they leave college?

How long they have spent in each role?

How have their job titles or level of responsibility changed?

Does it look like they should be achieving more or learning new skills?

What clues are there in what they talk about or post on Social Media?

Now consider . . . . .

What does your job offer them that allows them to move up to the next level?

THIS SHOULD BE YOUR FOCUS TO START REMOVING ‘THE CLOAK OF INVISIBILITY’ FROM GREAT CANDIDATES

Ensure that you now talk about the benefits of the role that reflect the level above them. This should give you the best chance to meet their needs and gain their interest in having a conversation with you (which should be the goal of your first attempt at connecting with them).

Nb. Don’t forget to use enticing headlines to grab their attention otherwise they’ll never know how wonderful your message or advert is

You might also like to give Crystal Knows a try if you haven’t yet. It’s a very useful Chrome extension that analyses social and email content and gives insight as to how to communicate with a particular person

If you work on the same type of role consistently you should consider using ‘Personas’ to focus your message effectively and get a real feel for your candidates. They are a fictional representation of your ideal hire for a specific role based on as much real data as possible, along with educated guesses about experience, goals, motivations, and concerns.

Hopefully, this has given you some areas for improvement to think about. Great candidates exist but you have to meet them in their world and perhaps change your mindset.

If you are keen to learn more about finding unique candidates and engaging effectively with them, please contact me at http://www.unikseek.co.uk/contact.html for further help or connect on LinkedIn/Twitter/Facebook.