Recently, Harry Joiner of MarketingHeadhunter.com created a bit of a dust up in the recruiting world with his take on forwarding an Introduction Request from another recruiter to one of his superstar candidates. (Read Harry’s post about the situation here, and check the latest results of Recruiting Animal’s poll on whether or not he did the right thing here.) The last point in Harry’s post sums up his take nicely:
Moral of the story: If you are a recruiter and you want to solicit one of the rock stars in my LinkedIn network, then you will need to do what I did: Cold call them.
Anyone who has a LinkedIn profile has likely experienced some version of the situation that Harry
speaks of because – unfortunately – there are a lot of lazy recruiters out there who believe that LinkedIn is an easy answer to all of their recruiting challenges. Many of those lazy recruiters take the following approach to using LinkedIn:
- Since time is of the essence, they do a quick and dirty LinkedIn Advanced Search using keywords straight off the generic job description. When a huge results list is returned, they congratulate themselves on their mad sourcing skillz and wonder why anyone would consider actually paying a researcher or sourcer to develop such a “targeted” recruiting list.
- They don’t waste time reading the “Contact Settings” or “Interested In” sections on member profiles to see how (or if) they are interested in being contacted. In the lazy recruiter’s world, it’s all about numbers, and these recruiters need to ping as many people as possible in order to ensure even a few responses.
- They send lots of InMails and don’t bother personalizing them beyond the first name (if that). A personalized email would require taking the time to read each recipient’s profile and that slows down their search efforts.
- Once their allotted InMails are burned for the month – they keep going. With millions of people in their extended “network”, it’s no problem to reach out to potential prospects using Introduction Requests sent through multiple (unknown) contacts. It’s so much easier getting their network to do the work for them!
- They spend a lot of time amassing and advertising huge numbers of contacts via every means humanly possible. They’re listed as TopLinked, a LION, have their email address listed as their name, and they’re a member of every LinkedIn Group known to man. This strategy allows them to put their huge “networks” to good use by sending job openings out to ALL of their contacts via the quick and easy “Send Job Notification” option.
- They don’t bother with completing their own LinkedIn Profile well. They’re only using LinkedIn to get out of it what they need. (Plus they don’t want potential candidates to know that they’ve actually not been a recruiter for very long.)
Are you an unlazy recruiter? (Not a word, but work with me.) If so, then you already know that there are plenty of ways to use LinkedIn effectively in identifying “A” players and building candidate relationships. Some good examples are included in this article by Lou Adler outlining 10 Great Tips for Using LinkedIn to Find the Best Passive Candidates on the Planet, and Lou’s approach strongly reinforces Harry’s main point. The word “call” (or a derivative) appears in the short article 20 times! There’s just no easier way. (Tim Tolan’s already said that here at FOT.) To connect with and recruit top talent (active, passive or not looking), you have to pick up the phone and begin having conversations.
Need some help and encouragement with making those calls? Check out this recent ERE article – Dialing Into Success: Using the Phone to Win, and this great video by Scott Loveat RecruitingBlogs.com. LinkedIn is a great database and networking facilitation tool, but it’ won’t take a recruiter who hasn’t got game to the next level. The recruiting All Stars who have reached the highest levels of their game have developed the confidence and ability to pick up the phone and engage potential candidates or referral sources in effective conversations.
Word to the wise: Never take the lazy approach of sending an Introduction Request or InMail to reach a potential candidate through Harry Joiner – or any other All-Star Recruiter (including the pros at Fistful of Talent). We ain’t gonna do your work for you!
“Some people dream of success… while others wake up and work hard at it.” – Unknown
Think you hit the right spots there.
If people were smart they’d realise that with an increased trend in outsourcing recruitment and HR functions to other countries – the only thing they are doing is what anyone else in the world can do. It doesn’t have much value and will only increase the likelyhood of them losing their jobs to less costly countries.
Truer words were never spoken Jennifer! You simply can’t build “electronic relationships”. LinkedIn users are becoming very selective about accepting “In-Mails” and before long we could experience fewer people responding to any type of outbound connection request if recruiters (and others) don’t use this wonderful tool the way it was intended.
With the increase in sourcer within recruitment they will have more time to call candidates then spend time researching. Then again freeing up more time for a recruiter could worry me.
but i don’t like having to pick up the phone… : (
some of my best relationships have been maintained via email and text message. seriously!
anyhoo… happy birthday!
Rosie – Great point! To earn the ability to partner with our clients (internal or external), we have to add real value in the process or we’ll lose that opportunity.
While I have many “electronic relationships”, and there’s a place for those in my networking and communication strategy, when it comes to placing candidates or making hiring decisions, we just have to have real conversations and move beyond the virtual world.
Tim – I knew you’d have my back!
Alex – What? You fear recruiters with time on their hands? Sounds like you’ve been spammed by a few recruiters in your past – probably by email, and maybe through LinkedIn… We don’t advocate that approach here at FOT! Continue to tune in to see how we roll around here.
Jessica – There’s exceptions to every rule – and of course you are exceptional – but hard to develop much of a candidate relationship with a message like: GAS – ? 4 u – do u <3 ur job? Y not J4F come wrk w/us? WYCM?. kthxby! (And thanks for the Bday shout out!)
Oh my goodness! THANK YOU!!! I am so tired of everything that you mentioned in your post. The worst are lazy recruiters who try to recruit Recruiters for non-recruiter positions (you left that one out) because they did key word searches and didn’t bother to read the profile to see that those are positions you RECRUIT FOR not skilled for. If I get one more “I found your resume on Linked In and felt you are the perfect candidate” type email even though I don’t have a resume on Linked In, I’m going to pick up the phone and reach out and touch their manager. This post is right on the money. I love it! I’m just glad I’m not alone.
When will some people get it? Not soon enough. Please keep it coming. I’m really enjoying your blog.