Bad Recruiting Habits To Stop Right Now - Spark Hire

Bad Recruiting Habits To Stop Right Now - Spark HireLizzyTheWriter is calling on all recruiters to stop these bad habits now Watch the video here Click To TweetIn the 14th episode of The Recruiting Reel, Elizabeth Becker from PROTECH examines bad recruiting habits that you should stop right now. Heres the transcriptJosh TolanWhats up everyone? My name is Josh Tolan and Im the CEO of Spark Hire, the leading video interviewing platform used by thousands of organizations around the world.And this is The Recruiting Reel, a video series in which we discuss real recruiting challenges with prominent recruiting experts to provide you with actionable tips you can apply to your own recruiting.Today, we are lucky enough to have Elizabeth Becker on the show. Elizabeth is currently the Client Partner at PROTECH, an IT staffing firm.In her role, Elizabeth helps PROTECHs world-class clients find and hire top tier candidates while also assisting candidates in landing their dream jobs.She has a uniqu e skill set blending a marketing, social media, and writing background with multiple years of experience in the recruiting industry.We asked Elizabeth to shed some light on bad recruiting habits that should stop right now and this is what she had to sayElizabeth BeckerHi Josh. Thank you so much for having me. Im Elizabeth Becker and I am the Client Partner of the tech staffing firm, PROTECH. You can find out more about PROTECH at protechitjobs.com. So, I am here to talk about some of the really bad habits that recruiters can have and how it affects the recruiting process and the reputation of the industry in general. For me, the number one mistake that recruiters can make is bedrngnis being cognizant of a candidates time. To me, its really important to respect a candidates time because if you want them to respect your time and pick up the phone when you call them, its definitely important for you to respect theirs as well. What does that mean? When you have an appointment with a can didate for 200 pm, you call them at 200 pm. That doesnt mean 210 or 215 because that basically shows that your time is more valuable than a candidates and thats not the case. A candidate is taking time out of their schedule usually from work, school, or whatever it might be to speak with you so its really important to be respectful. The other part of that is being aware of where a candidate might be living and what timezone they are in. You dont want to be calling them at 4 in the morning or midnight. Its very important that youre always aware of where a candidate is at and what you might be interrupting.The second thing I want to talk about is some traditional recruiting advice that I dont necessarily think is still a best practice. That piece of advice is what I like to call the sprinkler method. To me, the sprinkler method is trying to hit as many candidates as possible with the same generic message. What this shows a candidate is that you didnt look at their resume and youre not really interested in speaking with them, you just want to get your message out to as many people as possible. This isnt going to get you a very high response rate and the responses you do get wont be from top quality candidates. What I really recommend to both new and seasoned recruiters is to add some personalization into your messages. Take a bit of time to carefully group the candidates you want to reach out to, make a shortlist, and send personalized and individualized messages to each of those candidates. What youre going to get back is much better responses and youre going to be building up your candidate network for better referral sources in the future. So, its really important not to just do the water sprinkler method and get a mio responses, its better to take your time and reach out to the candidates that you want to speak to. It will really save you a lot of time in the long run. Thats all I have for today. Thank you again for having me.Josh TolanElizabeth, thank you so much for pointing out those bad habits which unfortunately, are pretty easy to develop.I think the sprinkler method is something that many new recruiters struggle with. Many folks blitz their activities and target every and any candidate with the same message. This yields some initial results, but eventually, youre left with diminishing returns and a bunch of annoyed candidates.Much of this is related to a recruiters eagerness to get moving and achieve quick wins and some of it can be tied back to another bad habit that Id like to point out which is not taking the time to learn about the professions of the individuals youre trying to recruit. Trust me, theres nothing worse for a candidate than speaking with a recruiter who tries to speak their language, but doesnt have a clue as to what theyre talking about.So the moral of the story, slow things down, do a lot of research, and create a playbook for how youre going to approach and follow up with candidates. This will allow you to pu t something meaningful into place, measure the results, and make adjustments so you dont reach that moment of diminishing returns on the bad habits you were practicing before.Thank you so much to Elizabeth Becker for coming on the show today. Head over to protechitjobs.com to learn more about PROTECH and the services that Elizabeth and her team provide. Also, follow her on Twitter lizzythewriter. In addition, I encourage you to connect with Elizabeth on LinkedIn.Thank you for watching The Recruiting Reel and stay tuned for more episodes. For additional HR and recruiting content, head over to hr.sparkhire.com and subscribe. Also, follow us on Twitter, sparkhire. And subscribe to our YouTube channel to be the first to know about the newest episodes of The Recruiting Reel.Thanks again for watching and happy recruiting