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When the Machines take over “we are all dead” follow this blog post

posted by on May 27, 2009

 

Just this past Wednesday I was listening to the Recruiting Animal do a show with my friend MM.  During the show he said, “are you an internet sourcer” or are you “a phone sourcer”.  And that got me thinking. 

There is a profusion of sourcing tools and technologies out there today.  Every day a new one comes along that can do better searches for you-- can provide better access to social media--can break down Boolean and find you the perfect candidate.  And as these new tools and technologies come out I am shocked and amazed to hear recruiters saying “wow, one of these days they won’t even need us” or  “with the cost of entry being so low what value does a recruiter bring”.  And I kind of think that at times we are sliding into that futuristic fantasy where we believe that one day our “Judgment Day” will come and our lives as recruiters will be over. 

I don’t believe that is true for a second… let me tell you why.

Because, the real talent that recruiters have comes from our human interaction with the candidate.  No candidate was ever closed over email.  At some point you have to pick up the phone and engage with the candidate, make a human connection that allows them to say, “Hey, this person is pretty cool and seems to be working in my best interest”.  Here is an interesting story from my own recent past that illustrates the point:

I work for Hewitt Associates on the HRO team.  Back in late December of last year we had to hire a large number of nurses for a client that we had just signed on.  We also had to hire them in a geography where we had little knowledge of the landscape.  Being good sourcers, we found a statewide list of registered nurses that included all of their email addresses.  We loaded all 3000+ names into our CRM tool and sent them all an initial email letting them know that we would be interested in speaking to them about opportunities. 

We got next to no response. 

Hmmm, not what we were expecting, well, we thought, maybe our messaging is wrong, so we sent out a subsequent message trying to hit on the key messages that we thought nurses would want to hear.

Again, very little response. 

Well, we were going out to the geography in question to hold interviews that very month, so we decided to hold a little intimate get together and invite the Nursing community, we mashed up Evite, and Facebook and even included a bit of twitter…. and voila, we got a great response.  In fact,  we filled all the roles and had pipeline left over.  Not because of our cool sourcing tools but because we used the tools available to us to actually take the time to get to know these nurses as people, more than just prospective employees.

In my view because social media, including the medium of email can only connect individuals so far, people strive for real human connection, you have to shake their hand, you have to pick up the phone and talk to them, you have to make a meaningful connection so that they feel that they can trust you, and maybe just as importantly that you can trust them. 

In conclusion, the machines will continue to come, but as recruiters we will continue to make human connections, and the machines will never win.

“I’ll be back…..”

machines sourcing tools
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3 comments

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  • 1 point 5 months ago
    To be a successful at sourcing you must know how to tap into the web. In order to be a successful recruiter you must know how to use the phone. At the end of the day dose it really matter where the candidate was found as long as you have the right person in the job. There are some positions where phone sourcing works better than the internet and there are other positions where the internet works better than the phone. There are occasions where the phone sourcer will identify people the internet sourcer didn’t find and there are times where the internet sourcer uncovers people over looked by the phone sourcer and in some cases the phone and internet sourcer will identify some of the same folks. Considering Linkedin has over 30 million users and facebook has over 150 million users and both sites are growing daily it is a mistake to not tap into these sources not to mention the sources of candidates hiding in the deep web. As older workers retire and are replaced by younger workers I expect to see candidates for positions that have not traditionally been internet friendly to be visible on the internet. Don’t get me wrong there is and will continue to be a need for phone sourcing I’ve always believed the best sourcing strategy will incorporate phone and internet sourcing. I believe starting off with the internet and finishing off with the phone. When contacting the candidate the phone will remain the best method.
  • 1 point 5 months ago

    I agree.

    We are needed more than ever. Recruiters who use the internet and forget old fashioned head hunting are doomed to failure in a bad economy.

    In our office, we are headhunters. We wear the title proudly. We don't subscribe to internet job boards. The candidates on the boards are easily accessible to everyone, why would we bother?

    Passive candidates are king, and will always be the people that our clients want, but can't find themselves.

    Taleo, and such systems that companies use are counterproductive. Who cares if the client has the candidate in their database? The only thing that happens with that type of system is that clients gather candidates that they can't hire and are closed out to recruiters. The best talent is lost in the shuffle. Why don't clients understand this? They aren't recruiters. They are HR people.

    It has been my contention all along that every client we work with has all the candidates they need in their database. If they knew how to recruit, they wouldn't need us at all. BUT, those bits of information are worthless without proper recruiting techniques to attract the candidate and close the deal.

    Recruiting is a psychological game, NOT a resume gathering game.

    I laugh every time a client of ours tells me that they have an offer out and are waiting for response. HA! Good recruiters never present an offer that isn't going to be accepted. No waiting for an answer. While the company is letting the candidate shop the offer, or get a counter offer, we line up our candidates. A week later? the job is still opened.

    They need us now more than ever. We all have the same information, but who can close the deal?

    Good recruiters are deal closers.

    BTW, if anyone in our office did a mass mailing without calling, I'd fire them to open the desk to someone who 'gets' it.

    The one thing I love about the internet? I can quickly figure out who works where, and who reports to whom. I can copy and paste lists into my database, and find people that are behind the people you don't see. It's a far cry from the old days (25 years ago) when I had to buy this information, or take the time to figure it out.

    If your office is struggling in this economy, get back to old fashioned head hunting. Turn off the computer. CALL SOMEONE!

    What do we bring to the party? A qualified candidate who will accept the offer. But, the qualified candidates need to be recruited. They need to be understood. We know the things that our clients will never know. We are trusted advisors, we know the landscape, and we know our candidates. We close the deal.

    I guess when all car salesmen are dead, so are we. It will never happen. Cars aren't sold because the dealership has a big sign. A buyer can go anywhere, just like our candidates. There is always a better deal somwhere, until the sales person gets involved. Only good closing techniques will seal the deal.

    Don't worry about recruiting dying. We've only just begun.

     

     

     

  • 1 point 5 months ago

    Can't wait.

    ;)