Recruiting & Staffing
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Posted: 2008-08-28 12:05
We are a staffing firm located in a geographic area suffering from 7% unemployment. Our recruiters are unable to respond to the hundreds of resumes we receive weekly and our standard reply is "the recruiter will contact you directly should they have any questions or an opportunity to discuss". Job seekers are desperate and their calls are becoming more frequent and confrontational.
It is a sign of the times and many employers are suffering the same. Has anyone found a recorded jobline beneficial in fielding the calls? Please share any methods or procedures you have inplemented and found successful.
nork3
Joined: Feb 12, 2002 Posts: 3876
Posted: 2008-08-28 14:22
If you're getting your resumes emailed to you and if you don't have it already, set up an autoresponse to applicants which says "due to the volume of resumes we receive we are unable to personally respond. If we are working on an opening which matches your background, we will contact you."
Backing this up with a recorded message will help, but I think the email response should dissuade most from calling.
pescandon
Joined: May 10, 2004 Posts: 12
Posted: 2008-09-11 09:35
We have those disclaimers but they don't work. You still have the desperate ones calling you all the time. Tough times out there.
Madser
Joined: Sep 11, 2008 Posts: 1
Posted: 2008-09-11 09:45
As Paul Simon says in one of his songs, "I will not give you false hope" - unfortunately, this is what many recruitment agencies give to those unemployed (or under-employed) seeking new job opportunities. The autoresponse should be mandatory, but this only gives the individual the acknowledgement that his/her resume has been received. This starts the 'false hope' - and they hang on to the hope that you will be getting back to them any day soon. They need to be assured that you're either working on matching their resume with a prospective employer, or not. In this age of computer capability, it's not rocket science to match these up, so be fair to the people who submit resumes and give them the real facts (even though sometimes hard and brutal). If you've nothing matching 'right now', then let them know, allow them to relinquish that false hope, and let them proceed with prospecting other aveneues in their quest for employment. Now that's good customer care.
dzyjne
Joined: May 03, 2007 Posts: 1
Posted: 2008-09-11 10:09
This is an interesting discussion! I am actually one of the many unemployed fabulous Recruiters who don’t get the call backs, I do however receive the many auto responses with out a call back...Mu unemployment was due to layoffs & restructuring of two Fortune 500 Companies I have worked for over the past 5 years. Having said this, I can understand the frustration on both sides-the candidate side & Recruiters side. My concern is that we have taken the Human element out of the discussions. Are there companies out there, who have or can maybe start the discussions with applicants personally early on rather than just receive an automatic response? When I was Recruiting, my phone number was always on the postings on all job boards. Not once did a candidate become confrontational..This gave a personal touch & human element for the candidate. Many of my candidates have commented I was a handful of Recruiters to have a phone number noted. This also provided me with many candidate referrals. My take has always been, if the candidate took the time out their busy day to respond to my postings & company, then it was important enough for me to respond to them in a timely manner-typically within 24 hours. I was able to increase my recruiting numbers by 195% in a 16 month period. It comes down to basics or costs...A Researcher or Sourcer to begin conversations, then on the Recruiter for an half hour to an hour, then on the Hiring Manager...very effective Team effort!
briangentry
Joined: Sep 11, 2008 Posts: 1
Posted: 2008-09-11 10:15
I believe to best utilize the talent, regardless of the market, one needs to be able to be take advantage of every nuance of a candidate's resume. To do that, using an ATS and matching skills against job categories makes the most sense. Then find what your percentage of candidates can work remotely. Though this won't solve your entire problem, you have effectively identified a possible revenue stream and a way to help some of those who so desperately need to work. All is left is for you to network within other markets, who are not in such a challenging market (New York, LA, San Francisco, etc.), and see what they have that will match those remote capabilities as well as your skill match database. Generic responses are ok, but address the real root of the problem and get creative!
predictiveassets
Joined: Sep 11, 2008 Posts: 2
Posted: 2008-09-11 10:51
My company can furnish you an application tracking system (ATS) that results in you getting no more resumes but applications for every job you post.
When you post each job, you ask several 'knock-out' questions. If the candidate does not answer satisfactorily, they get on-screen message 'thanks but no thanks'. If they do pass, they are immediately given a pre-hire assessment measuring attitudes toward honesty, ethics, reliability and substance abuse.
This ATS system carries a fixed price, so if you are receiving 1,000 resumes per month, it will automatically handle each resume for less than $ .25 each (yes, 25 cents each...or less) and provide you with list of screened in and screen out applications.
If you would like me to help solve your problem, just let me know how to contact you.
Regards to all,
PredictiveAssets (we foretell the future of your company's most important asset...your employees)
bremerbnj
Joined: May 25, 2004 Posts: 2
Posted: 2008-09-11 10:54
I agree, you're always going to get the desperate ones who don't understand how recruiting agencies work and will always think you have nothing better to do but look for a job for little Ol' them. But to just send an auto email response and stop there would probably make Simon Cowell tell you that you just sang a very forgettable song leaving you with little momentum for future business when the economy picks up. I try to look at situations like this and think about where the business development opportunity is. Are these persistent or confrontational calls and emails acts of pure idiots and morons or perhaps are they really from people reaching out for information from someone whom they see as a trusted industry source? I personally believe the greater percentage is of the latter. I also believe this is a time to take advantage of building a strategy for developing, building and fortifying a loyal, active pipeline as well as to build upon your name brand identity as a trusted and knowledgeable professional in the staffing industry.
While you may not have immediate opportunities for good candidates, it would still be advantageous to establish and maintain a relationship with them. Develop a monthly email campaign to market current job orders and deliver value add information on various aspects of their industry, hiring trends and stats, articles for career advice etc. the sky's the limit on ideas. They might not read your email and some might even opt out of receiving them. But this is all part of your strategy for future business. So as you execute the strategy and when the economy turns, your database will hopefully recognize, respond and bring reward to you as being the trusted source who took the time to care and communicate with them where; 1. They send referrals for your existing job orders; 2. As you receive new job orders you'll have an active and loyal pipeline to source from, 3.) Some of these candidates will become hiring managers and hopefully your name is on the first Recruiter to call list.
It's nothing new..in the end it's really the basics. But I hope this gives you some ideas.
Brian
nork3
Joined: Feb 12, 2002 Posts: 3876
Posted: 2008-09-11 11:50
The post and the suggestions above are excellent - by all means stay in touch with those who've sent resumes with a newsletter. It builds good will towards your firm, and anyone who's been in staffing for any length of time knows that just as there may be a shortage of jobs and a surplus of candidates now, it won't be long before there's a shortage of candidates and a surplus of unfilled jobs. Building good will now will help you manage the future candidate shortage later.
In what geographical area are you? what kind of skills or trades do these desperate job seekers have? depending on your answer, and if your people are willing to relocate, there might be ways of getting them good jobs.
Chamlin
Joined: Sep 12, 2008 Posts: 1
Posted: 2008-09-12 07:34
What do you do if they are not qualified? Do you send anything to them to let them know that you are not considering them for the opening? It is well and good to acknowledge the receipt of the resume, tell them that you are reviewing it and will call if you have something, but you also need to close that loop, too.
Send an e-mail letting them know that you are "pursuing other candidates..." This should cut down on another large chunk of the calls. You will still get the people that think they can talk their way in, but those are a far smaller number.
minamina6
Joined: Sep 16, 2008 Posts: 1
Posted: 2008-09-16 10:02
I agree with mailing out job postings on a monthly basis to people who have sent resumes. I am now employed but forward those posts to friends who are currently unemployed. I'm helping my friends and the recruiting company, too.
tomenosal
Joined: Sep 16, 2008 Posts: 1
Posted: 2008-09-16 12:27
I would like to offer a viewpoint in this discussion from the other side of the fence. I was a jobseeker for quite awhile until recently when I decided to open my own business.
Until you have been on this side of the fence, you cannot appreciate what our frustration is. By far, the most frustrating aspect of a job search today is the lack of communication and feedback.
An e-mail indicating you received our resume/application is great. It tells us that the time we spent crafting the resume to the job application was not for nothing. You actually received it.
What’s totally lacking after this point is any further response. A simple e-mail in a timely fashion indicating where our resume is in the process would be very welcome. Anyone in the job market understands rejection. What is unacceptable is not getting any further response. Let the job seeker know where they stand as soon as possible so they can then pursue other opportunities. This is not only a common courtesy, but will show the professionalism of your firm.
JMcQuaid
Joined: Dec 07, 2004 Posts: 36
Posted: 2008-09-16 13:21
I am a one-person HR department. While it would be very nice to have the resources (read "time") to prepare a careers newsletter and maintain a database of everyone whose ever applied, to send it out to, it's just not going to happen.
I have an auto response acknowledging receipt of email resumes that thanks applicants, tells them their resume will be reviewed against current openings and kept on file for any future opportunities but PLEASE Don't phone the company. All my ads say "PLEASE Don't phone the company".
Nevertheless, people continue to call. I understand their desperation to find work, and I empathize with that. But I just have to wonder why call me when I have specifically asked them not to? Why should I be eager to hire someone who either doesn't read or can't take direction? A far more positive thing for them to do would be to send me a follow up email. That way, I'll know they are still in the market and will be impressed that they have respected my request not to phone.
pf
Joined: Feb 28, 2008 Posts: 94
Posted: 2008-09-17 07:16
What is unacceptable is not getting any further response. Let the job seeker know where they stand as soon as possible so they can then pursue other opportunities.
I can't believe that anyone I would want to hire would stop pursuing other job opportunities until they had an offer firmly in their hand. It is my opinion that a person should continue searching for a job until they have one and not put it on hold pending contact from one company...
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Posted: 2008-08-28 12:05 
