Passive Candidate Development
What is it?
Passive Candidate Development is a sourcing strategy used to find quality candidates who are currently employed, not actively looking for a new job and who have a particular desired skill set. Passive search is often used when candidates cannot be found by actively posting a job, hosting a job fair or searching for posted resumes of individuals who are job seeking. This entails identifying a candidate list from competitive companies and proactively calling on those candidates to present the new opportunity.
How is it used?
By directly sourcing management positions from targeted competitors within a similar industry and geography focused areas.
Why would organization use it?
The Department of Labor says that 84 percent of the workforce is made up of Passive Candidates. With Passive Candidates making up the majority of the work force, it is important for an organization to utilize this recruiting tool. Using this approach is popular among hiring managers who specifically know what they want in a candidate.
There are many benefits to using this approach. First being it saves time and money. It is very costly for a company to take on a new employee that needs extensive training, with this approach minimal training is necessary. Because the candidate is already an expert in that field, they are highly knowledgeable about that position. Due to the high cost of training, having to provide minimal training save an organization enormous amounts of money. Training can be especially time consuming, especially if they are new within that field. This approach allows an organization to focus on more pressing matters other than training. Also an organization can be assured the job expectations are being met. Organizations use Passive Candidate Development to fill management positions. Since they are some of the most important positions within a company, they need to be filled with candidates that will get the job done.
Since the candidates are passive, they are currently not looking for a job, which makes it difficult to identify them. The candidate will not be utilizing a job board to post their resume or any forms of social media to display their interest in a new position. Also there are no other available options until you know who the person you are seeking is. Another drawback is making the connection since traditional communication is hindered it is important to use alternative ways. A lot of RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) companies rely on cold calling, in which scenarios will be created to first find out who the person is as well as make initial contact with them.
Passive Candidate Development will provide an organization with a high caliber of skilled, quality, and qualified candidates.
April 2010 Hiring Trends Show Slow Improvements
U.S. employers in April added 290,000 new hires, more than Wall Street expected and the largest gain since March 2006, according to a recent WSJ article. The unemployment rate rose to 9.9%, a sign that more Americans are looking for jobs.
At the end of April 2010, the major job aggregation sites released hiring data and analysis, indicating slow but measurable growth. Below is a summary job report from Indeed.com, SimplyHired.com, and Execunet.com.
The slow job growth demonstrates some early signs of a recovery. However, job growth was inconsistent, effecting some cities, industries and job functions more than others. Indeed.com publishes a monthly report of where the jobs are, giving insights into which job market is strongest and which is weakest. Indeed’s job market survey shows slightly stronger job advertising activity, demonstrating slow growth.
Indeed’s April 2010 survey of job advertisements show the job market is strongest in Washington DC and San Jose CA. Washington has been at the top of the list for a while, as Federal government spending has been high. However, San Jose CA improved in April to sharing a 1:1 ratio of unemployed per job advertisements. The top 10 job markets are geographically spread throughout the US (with the exception of the Southeast US). Baltimore, NYC, Salt Lake City UT, Oklahoma City OK, Hartford CT, Boston MA are all at 1:2 ratio of unemployed to job advertisements. Seattle WA & Austin TX, both at 1:3, round out the 10 best job markets.
At the opposite end of the spectrum is Detroit MI (#48, 1:7), Los Angeles CA (#49, 1:8), and Miami FL (#50, 1:9). Florida has the unfortunate distinction of having 4 of the worst 10 job markets – Tampa (#40, 1:5), Orlando (#42, 1:5), Jacksonville (#44, 1:6) and Miami (#50, 1:9). California has 3 of the worst 10 job markets – Sacramento (#46, 1:6), Riverside (#47, 1:7), and Los Angeles (#49, 1:8).
It’s interesting to note that these ratios have been slowly improving month over month through 2010. This indicates that there is some job growth, but it’s growing at a very slow pace.
Technology Industry On Hiring Spree
The past few years have been hard on the recruiting industry, especially in the technology industry. With companies like Microsoft and Intel having mass layoffs last year, the industry seemed to get hit hard by the recession. However, many tech companies began a hiring spree late last year and continue to be actively hiring. ISI Group, a research firm, says that they believe overall revenues will rise more than 10% for the first quarter for many large tech companies. That is a major improvement when looking at a 16% decline just last year.
Take a look at Intel, a company that laid off 79,800 employees at the end of 2009. The popular computer chip maker said that it plans to hire 1,000 to 2,000 people in 2010, the first substantial hiring spree for the company in five years. Google, the world’s leading search engine company, said that it hired 786 new employees in the first quarter and that it expects to continue hiring.
The hiring spree in the technology industry is not just affecting the big players, smaller startups are also beginning to hire. LinkedIn, the social networking website for professionals, hired 184 people last year and 154 so far this year to bring its employee count to about 500. The company said it also plans to add an additional 300 hires this year. Another social media startup, Twitter, said it hired about 125 employees since last May, which brings the company to a total of 170 employees.
Source: Wall Street Journal
Good News for the Recruiting Industry!
On Thursday March 18, President Obama signed into action a new bill, which will directly affect the staffing industry over the next few years. Our industry has taken one of the largest hits over the past two years, since many companies reduced their hiring initiatives, which left many staffing and recruiting companies with half the volume they were used to in prior years. However, President Obama has made it one of his top concerns to get the whole country and economy back on its feet, starting with reducing unemployment. February saw little progress in decreasing nonfarm unemployment. The current unemployment rate has remained at 9.7% and February only saw 36,000 more employed Americans in comparison to January. The new bill will directly respond to these sluggish numbers by creating $18 billion in tax breaks for companies who hire in the next year. The bill is proposed to create 250,000 new jobs over the next year. Although that may not seem largely significant, it will bring new business for the recruiting industry, something that we can all look forward too!
Byron West
President
Your trusted HIRING PARTNER
Let us help you HIRE the BEST, FASTER and PAY LESS
Generation Y
As we look forward to emerging out of this recession and reducing unemployment, a new and highly anticipated generation of employees is moving into the workforce. There seems to be a lot of skepticism about how effective the “me” generation will be. Growing up in a culture centered on instant gratification and focused on efficiency, this new generation of the workforce will bring a new set of cards to the table. No longer is the time dedicated to a job, a justified means to being promoted. Generation Y will now see their performance as the most justified reason for upward mobility in the company. In addition 35% of Generation Y employees wish to communicate with their boss several times a day. What is to be expected from these new employees should be clear, obtainable, and concise. Focused on efficiency, the more communication will be essential in obtaining the optimal performance from new workers.
In addition, Generation Y, or the “me” generation, seeks to obtain the security and status their parents obtained much earlier in life. In a recent survey Generation Y respondents ranked “working with a manager I can respect and learn from” as an 8.74 on a 10 point scale. With most new employee’s eyes set on upward mobility, the ability to gain wisdom from their managers is becoming ever more crucial. Skepticism about this new workforce has led Generation Y to be referred to in a negative connotation. However, I believe that the new mold of employees can bring new effectiveness to companies through their aptitude with technology and ambition to jump through the necessary hoops to achieve success. Most of Generation Y has grown up with computers and has become extremely proficient at navigating the Internet. Their awareness with new developing technologies will bring technology options that may have gone unnoticed. Nevertheless, with the new employees coming into the workforce, I think we can all anticipate what Generation Y will bring to the table.
Resources:
Questions and Answers about GENERATION X/GENERATION Y. www.bc.edu/wfnetwork. Sloan Work & Family Research Network, n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2010. <wfnetwork.bc.edu/pdfs/GXGY.pdf>.
Byron West
President
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Let us help you HIRE the BEST, FASTER and PAY LESS
Powerful Tools: For Recruiters
A good recruiter not only finds the best talent, but does it quickly and efficiently as well. With Salesforce.com’s application exchange recruiters can find myriad applications to do just that.
While Salesforce is not an applicant tracking system, by utilizing its extensive database of applications, Salesforce can be equally as valuable as a Candidate Relationship Management tool. The PowerDialer application uses a powerful telephony tool, changing the way you reach out to candidates. For high-volume recruiting environments, the application can increase call efficiency by up to 400% through automatic updates of activities, automatic pre-recorded voicemail tool, and their powerful auto-dialer feature. Other applications such as Jobscience allow recruiters to distribute job openings and manage resumes all within the Salesforce platform.
Organization is fundamental in recruiting and that is where the Customer Relationship Management aspect of Salesforce comes in. By embracing Salesforce’s activity and task management features, recruiters can create a more organized and efficient workflow while keeping up a fast pace.
The true value of accurate candidate tracking truly adds to a more pleasant candidate experience. Qualified candidates are more likely to apply to a requisition after speaking to a recruiter that is familiar with them and any previous conversations they may have had.
Byron West
President
Your trusted HIRING PARTNER
Let us help you HIRE the BEST, FASTER and PAY LESS