Strong Recruiter or Empty Ads?
Technology changes and candidate behaviors have forced the question of what is better for your business: job ad vs. recruiter? For years, advertising was a reliable means to garner resumes, some of which might actually approach the job description. If one had patience and a willingness to run an ad enough times, there was a reasonable expectation of eventually finding an acceptable candidate. Unfortunately, with the exception of a very specific group of candidates, the days when advertising was a reliable way to source for your hard-to-fill jobs are gone.
Candidates, especially ones with high demand skills, no longer find it necessary to answer ads. Electronic media in general and social media portals in particular now provide a steady stream of invitations and information about opportunities without effort on their part. Candidates in high demand jobs may get a dozen or more such invitations per week. All they have to do is read their email, answer their phone or check their profile.
This constant point to point communication with active entities in the employment market keep prospective candidates updated on the relative health of their skills and their marketability. More importantly for employers, it has almost eliminated the likelihood of successfully advertising a difficult opening into fulfillment. Why? The candidates generally don’t need to look…the jobs are finding them!
The direct and opportunity costs of running ads and rummaging through hundreds of unqualified candidates increases dramatically as the likelihood of eventual success plummets.
So in the debate of job ad vs. recruiter are ads totally without merit? Of course not. Some qualified candidates do answer ads. They are, in the vast majority of cases, candidates from outside the area who wish to relocate themselves near your facility. If they are good, those candidates are getting pinged about the wrong jobs, those close to where they live currently. They are not being pinged about opportunities near you.
So what is the solution for job ad vs. recruiter?
For low to moderate volume hiring in high demand skills areas, your best bet is with a good agency recruiter. The fee is well worth the investment as you’ll get a short targeted slate of resumes…all of which have been pre-qualified for fit and interest. If that has not been your experience with agencies in the past, keep looking, we are out there.
