I got several phone calls yesterday about my rant on the USA Today survey. The calls weren’t about something I misspelled or mis-interpreted, it was about the remark on how social networking and free job sites were hurting CareerBuilder and Monster, the big job posting boards.
The calls were not to pick apart something I said, or to defend the big job boards. The callers wanted to find out how to it.
Specifically, they wanted to know how to use new tools to get good candidates without having to pay the onerous rates of the big job boards. It’s not easy, but it can pay off. Here is what I told them:
First, get working on your employment brand. Get your marketing people (or pay one if you don’t have one in house) to build your employment brand. Tell the truth, loudly. Brag.
Next, get online. The people you want to hire are out there, not in the conventional job lines. With lots of people in the system, you need to use technology in a way that sets you apart.
Then, build a cloud of people around your web portal of high quality people that might want to work for you. That’s where the branding pays off, and the proper use of social networking is the “game changer” that will do it.
Finally, have an Applicant Management System that asks better questions and helps the low performers self-select out of the system. This system will work with the free job boards and get your message out.
…that’s the secret to getting better candidiates for free.
Karl Ahlrichs' Uncommon Experience 
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