Recruiting real talent to your company takes bold, hard work because the best people are usually working somewhere else. Sure, you can post your job on CareerBuilder and watch as the unqualified resumes start pouring in—but that’s not recruiting, it’s advertising. Recruiting is reaching out to qualified people to sell them on your opportunity. To do this, you have to arouse their interest enough to get them to talk to you and then quickly determine what it would take for them to make a change. We call this the ‘Hook.’ As you recruit passive candidates (people who are not actively looking for a job) you’ll encounter roadblocks. Here’s our advice on overcoming the most common pitfalls:
“No Thanks…I’m Working”
If you’re not in the market, you’re not interested—or are you? Everyone is curious about an opportunity for something better and you have to tap into this. A good way to get around this auto-response is, “I understand you’re not actively in the job market, but if you had an opportunity for career growth would you be interested in hearing the details?”
“Maybe…What’s the Pay?”
Money talks, but sometimes that’s all people care about and it can be hard to get them to focus on the big picture and not the bottom dollar. A great response to up-front and aggressive salary questions is, “My initial goal is to determine if this might be a good fit on both sides and if it is, you can rest assured that the salary and benefits will reflect that.”
“Here Are My Terms & Conditions”
Good candidates always have options, but that doesn’t mean they can demand things up front or ask invasive questions. If you’re talking to someone about a job opportunity and they go straight to their demands—for example: “I want a company car, an expense account, and my own office” RUN AWAY! This isn’t the kind of attitude or person you want on your team.
Happy Hiring!
