Headhunters 2.0: how the job has gone digital – the new rules of candidate engagement.

The topic of today comes after discussions around how new media are rewriting rules of engagement among people and most importantly, the relationship between candidate and headhunter.

With the coming of various SNS and blogs, we built aliases and profiles on communities, social networks and other websites and spend more time with smartphones, scrolling down the Linkedin or Facebook homepage as the freak of the day, liking, commenting , cursing on people with a click, or a twits, making sure that we follow all those flashy and blinking icons diligently, and that happens every busy morning on the train, on the way to work.

In this changing scenario, one thing is for sure: everyone in the market is more accessible, willing to engage more with the right people, eager to get referrals, information, but against the time waste.
There is a thick blurred line in between the private and the public spaces around us, and right in such grey zone relationships with recruiter are taking place: in that relational limbo takes a second to access personal info, browse friends list on Facebook, see followers on Twitter , and check your Linkedin profile before the meeting is set

But how the SNS deluge has changed the rules of the hiring game ? here is an interesting view.

• smarter, quicker access: SNS have multiplied access to people, not only on everyday life but also in recruitment. If not so long ago the main media to communicate with a candidate was through the routine call>voicemail>email, nowadays even in Japan in most cases all goes digital.
  Use of text messages is now more popular in the market as creates a quick prime access to our targets, allowing to communicate with an informal tone (I am sure all of you hate the formal way to write email to arrange an interview or communicate the next step of a process) during any time of the day without creating any distraction.  People love also to use WhatsApp, WeChat and Line as they chat with friends throughout the day or simply follow newsfeed, belong to community – it’s another tool that I love as I can access and share more information and multimedia, or simply share feeds and news with one click, indeed a great media to share info and create constant engagement, while no one has time for email and calls anymore.
  As long as the benefit of an informal access channel is explained, no candidate would have objection to use SNS to speak with their agents, then just ask for it.
• higher degree of engagement: As contents and information are widely available, people tend to search everything on smartphone and touch base with the relevant connections, being naturally more engaged and open to recruiters’approach.
  In matter of headhunting means that candidates are genuinely more open to listen “the job gossip of the day” , “the hottest market trend” or simply what makes noise around the street, given that they seldom have time to lend ear to what happens outside their office. However, as there is a huge number of recruiters that have low level of Social Media Networking Skills and prefer to copy/paste messages,  and spam on daily basis, such candidates are yet sensitive to engage and rather refrain to speak to such agents with no credibility.
  One golden rule to remember: potentially everyone on Linkedin is a job seeker with a CV ready to be sent, as long as there is a right key to engage with relevant information, showing the right value proposition of connecting with you.
• powerful information threads that lead to new jobs job search has become an adventure, where candidates tend to value the corporate branding, the information around the potential company you are recruiting for, making decision based on reviews, word-of-mouth, and other channels.
  Websites such as Glassdoor are highly popular, as provide insightful info about companies being reviewed by their employees and amongst the medium used to compare, analyze and get a real feel of the potential workplace.
  As smart headhunter make sure that you read the social pages of your clients,  that you read positive and negative info coming from any social platform, as you need to make sure not to over-state, or over-exaggerate anything about your client.
  A candidate would rather prefer an agent who can explain details, than another “corporate dog” that sells the best place to work with a well crafted fairytale – on internet a lie can be easily found out.

• no time wasting posts and touch points: with tons of posts coming from Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, Facebook, Line or any other flashy icon on the phone, people have less time for reading low quality copy/pasted messages and mails.
  Moved by curiosity I spoke with several of my candidates last month, doing a quick exercise to see what really active engagement mean to them, and how value and perceive a socially engaged recruiter. In most of instances I have heard unsatisfied and frustrated professionals who wish to receive more qualified information, rather than the same impersonal message, send to thousands of people on the same day.
  I realize that recruiters are so stupid at times that don’t make effort to customize the engagement messages, while should write a personal note to each candidate approached on Linkedin.
  It is low touch approach that requires time as we all know, however rather than using massively Control C + Control V, make sure that you write a quick personal post to your target, or you will never get an answer.

Lastly, one quick note on how 2.0 candidates are tackling job market today. A quick “fact list” for all the headhunters who want to get more digital, here below:

• Passive candidates tend to do more job searching on Facebook rather than Linkedin, mainly happening due to the low quality interactions of recruiters and headhunters that shy the Rockstar candidates away ;
• More candidates are using Glassdor, Linkedin and other social sites to assess employers’ corporate stability and make decision during the job search, as more candidates are eager to apply for companies that well manage their corporate branding strategy;
• 83% of candidates are active on Facebook. This is compared to 40% on Twitter and 36% on LinkedIn * (source www.talent-works.com);
• Passive candidates tend to spend more time on Facebook for job searching during weekends, evening and non-working time, whereas tend to check Linkedin during working hours;
• Job seekers are mostly using smartphones to search for company info or new job opportunities;