Recruiting Trends provides a summary of CareerBuilder and USA Today’s Q4 Job Forecast and there are some interesting trends.  First, according to the survey workers are postponing active job searches but are open to a change if the right one comes along.  Of the 6,100 workers surveyed, 38% are planning to sit tight for the next year and wait for the economy to swing back while 41% plan on staying until retirement.

This “squatting” will create some tension in that 23% of employers plan to add full-time, permanent employees in the next three months and 34% say they are having a hard time finding qualified candidates, especially in highly-skilled areas.  Not surprising, is it?

Finding the right candidate will be difficult over the next 3 months.  The holidays are a difficult time, in general, to fill positions.  This holiday season will be even more of a challenge.  Posting ads through the big job boards or local newspapers will probably not produce the results you are looking for.  I would suggest making a strong push through your network as your primary sourcing channel.  This approach will provide the best chance at finding, and hiring, the right candidate.

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Last week Craig’s List job postings started costing $25 in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Miami (South Florida), Philadelphia, and Phoenix.  These cities joined the following cities that already charge a fee for job postings – Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, NYC, Orange County, Portland, Sacramento, Seattle, San Diego, San Francisco Bay Area, Washington DC and NYC.  I supposed it is not surprising with all the “get rich now” ads that are all over the sites.

We are fans of Craig’s List and have had some decent success using their job board.  Unfortunately, it does require some patience by the candidates since there is much garbage to sift through on the site.  Still, it is a valuable resource and an effective piece of a full sourcing program.

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Seems like LinkedIn is benefiting from the recent financial industries crisis.  According to a post at Cheezhead they have had significant increases in registrations and in recommendations:

The site has reported a 17 percent increase in registrations in the last two weeks. They are now claiming to reach 28 million users, up one million from last quarter.

Reports show that memberships from people representing the financial sector have also doubled after thousands of people have been laid off or threatened with termination as closures and mergers usurp industry leaders and rattle the core of the sector.

The site also claims to have seen a 14 percent increase in recommendations, most likely a result of users scrambling to attach praise to their resume in order to find stable jobs in a worsening economy.

I’m sure that other sites are seeing an increase in activity from the financial sector as well (i.e. Monster, CareerBuilder, Plaxo, Facebook, etc.)  Understatement—-I have a feeling you can find many financial industry candidates on these boards/sites right now.

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You have probably read many “how to” articles that provide tips for jobseekers.  One tip that almost always makes the list is to have a professional email address.  Unfortunately, I was looking through resumes today and found one person who may not have read any of those articles.

His email address:  rednecktrucker@domain.com

Next.

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I’m a fan of the video resume concept for sales positions.  Salespeople have to interact with clients in a manner that best represents your company.  The video resume provides a glimpse into this presentation ability.

Yet, according to RecruitingTrends.com, the majority of companies are not accepting these forms of resumes (emphasis mine):

Indeed, just one in four (24%) senior executives polled claim that their companies accept video resumes from candidates reveals the survey, developed by Robert Half International, a staffing services firm specializing in accounting and finance and conducted by an independent research firm. When asked whether their company accepts video resumes from job seekers, 58% of responding executives state no, 24% say yes, and 18% claim they do not know. Although video resumes have become more common, many employers are still reluctant to accept them for fear of bias claims from applicants.

That is a legitimate concern from employers and on that does not have any easy solutions.  Unfortunately, there are unintended consequences to government legislation.  A solution to this problem would help both sales candidates and employers over the long term, but my suspicion is that video resumes will disappear instead.

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One of the points we always push when it comes to sourcing is to use multiple channels that still includes online job boards.  In fact we use them during our sourcing efforts, however if you talk to other recruiters you will probably hear that running ads on the boards will only get you active job seekers (the unemployed).  We find that at least half of the salespeople that respond to our ads are currently working or what other recruiters call passive job seekers. 

So the one thing we are always looking for are niche job boards to try out.  What we are finding is that the niche job boards deliver on their marketing promise to provide better qualified candidates than the big boards.  Even the big boards are trying to segment their space and create a quasi-niche approach.  Fox Business had an article on CareerBuilder.com’s attempt to develop a new niche site in WorkInRetail.com.  Here is what the Managing Director had to say (emphasis is mine):

“WorkInRetail.com will help retailers compete more effectively with other industries for qualified talent and make the talent acquisition process much more efficient for retailers,” said Ben Jablow, Managing Director of WorkInRetail.com. “Many job seekers are only aware of a few of the available retail positions, but in reality there are so many different types of retail jobs from finance to human resources to web development to market research to loss prevention. WorkInRetail.com will help elevate the profile of retail employment by educating job seekers about the long-term, diverse career opportunities that exist in retail.”

The big job boards are difficult to maneuver to find the jobs that are of greatest interest.  The aforementioned job board is a site that we will probably never use, but hopefully this will eliminate the clutter you encounter when you look for sales positions on CareerBuilder.  If you have ever searched for a sales position on the big boards, you know how cluttered the results are with retail positions instead of B2B inside and outside sales positions.  I think the niche approach is a smart, needed move by CareerBuilder.com.

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We preach to our clients that simply placing an onlie ad is not a sound sourcing strategy.  Managesmarter.com has an article that gives 3 good, quick tips for leveraging the Internet to fill open positions.

The only way to effectively recruit is to use multiple channels. You’re trying to find that one person who is exactly right, and that means exploring multiple avenues. This includes your offline efforts, by the way—don’t stop networking just because you’ve posted a job online. Work multiple sources (both online and real world) to get the word out about your opening.
Make sure you’ve got an accurate, well-written, exciting job description. You need a posting that sells the job and your company. A good job description should be the first message a potential candidate sees about your company. It should provide a good story, but also a realistic picture of the level of responsibility and some sense of career potential. In the online world there’s no character limit, so you can go into detail and include links to strong Web pages. Never view writing a job ad as a chore; don’t just delegate it to HR or someone who reports to you.
Pick several places to post your ad online. Here’s where it gets tricky: There are several online sourcing options, all of which come with trade-offs. Let’s start with blogs, e-mail listservs and interest groups such as Yahoo! Groups. These options are probably stronger in building long-term recognition than in immediately producing large numbers of applicants.

One thing I would add is if you’re not using LinkedIn, Facebook or MySpace in your sourcing, you’re missing the boat.  Start by getting your profile on these sites and connecting, then push your open positions out to your new network.  It’s not about knowing the right people and being directly connected to them, it’s about being connected and allowing your network to push your opportunity out to people they know that may be a good fit.

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The frequency of layoffs has started to rise as the economy continues it’s slow progression (no, it hasn’t recessed).  Up here in Minnesota we have experienced some large layoffs recently.  But there is an interesting point in all of these layoffs when it comes to salespeople.

Many times the underperformers are released first as a method for upgrading the sales force.

One of the large corporations up here announced a sizeable layoff that reduced their employee count by 5%.  Yet, the following week they had multiple employment ads on multiple sites looking for different levels of salespeople.  This approach is not surprising as you will see it often during slow economic times.  The major companies use the cover of a slow economy to jettison salespeople who have had targets on them for some time.

This fact means that all sales hiring today needs to be careful.  There are strong salespeople who get cut loose, but you have to have a process to find them.  The pretenders, the salespeople who can do enough to mostly hide on your payroll, are also out there.  These salespeople are more difficult to identify and screen out of the candidate pool.

It is imperative that you have a process that goes far beyond resume, interview, gut-level decision.  If you need assistance, we can help.

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I’ve been reading through many sales employment ads recently and am seeing a trend – the ads are written tighter.  A couple of examples:

-Minimum of 5 years of related public accounting and/or corporate sales

-A minimum of two years’ business development experience in a pharmaceutical and/or CRO biotechnology, or drug development company.

Nothing wrong with this approach since the candidate pool is still relatively large due to the slow economy.  One thing to be sure of – the labor pool will tighten up again soon.  At that point, it is wiser to move these requirements into preferences and look outside of your industry for transferable skills.

One interesting point – the aforementioned examples are from companies that recently laid off numerous employees.  This is a common approach for large companies.  They tend to purge a certain number of employees during slow times.  Wall Street is more accepting of this news and it is a good time to upgrade certain positions.

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$4.50 here in the Twin Cities.  According to this Pioneer Press story:

And if the price hits $4.50 per gallon, more than half of the commuters in the Twin Cities said they’ll be looking at changes in their daily commute.

The survey found commuters are most aggressive about looking for options in Atlanta, Dallas and the Twin Cities. They are slowest in San Francisco.

The gas price is a strong lever in sales recruiting right now, but you have to be prepared to discuss the reimbursement side of the equation.  We have noticed a definitive upclick in the discussion of mileage reimbursement/car allowance.  In fact, this topic is coming up in the first or second phone discussion.

Nationally, some 31 percent of 2,915 respondents indicated they’d be scoping out options once gas hits $4. That can include more flexible working hours, taking mass transit, telecommuting or other changes.

“Other changes” is where we step in.  Working closer to home or from home are important incentives in today’s market.  If your company does not have a remote workforce option, you need to implement one – it is that important for sales.  Second, use this option in your sourcing efforts.  I guarantee this topic is at the forefront of almost every salesperson’s mind.

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