The advent of online job recruitment was mistaken as formidable competition to staffing and recruiting firms. The theory was that client companies and organizations would bypass such agencies and find great fits on the web, and candidates would successfully search for new jobs with the same ease they now book cheap airline flights and discounted vacation stays. For the clients and candidates at Abel Personnel, the reality is quite different:
- Cost Barrier: For those looking to fill job openings, the online option comes with a heavy upfront cost plus no guarantee. In most cases, you post what you want and you pay the fees regardless of how many qualified applicants, if any, you receive. If you hire through this process and the applicant does not work out, there is no refund of the posting costs. At a personnel firm, you only pay a fee once the person is hired, and there is usually a prorated refund if the placement in rare cases is not successful.
- Attracting Qualified Candidates: SEO – search engine optimization – has become a familiar term for those launching websites to attract customers or donors. The same principle applies to job opening postings. What is the right amount of specificity to attract rather than dissuade qualified candidates? What software program familiarity is a must. How important is a degree? What keywords will draw interest in the position? Your posting might inadvertently include yellow and red flags to the candidates that you most want to attract. Creating an online job posting requires significant experience and skill to be effective and worth the cost of the posting.
- Attracting Career Opportunities: The challenge for applicants is similar. How to respond to posted openings to receive enquiries that are a good fit for your skills and experience, and a culture in which you will thrive. What terms should be in your resume and cover letter that will move your application past the algorithm designed to reject unqualified applicants? This is especially daunting for non-traditional candidates.
- Wading Through Responses: The onslaught of internet responses far exceeds the results of newspaper classified ads. Often the person who must process the (virtual) pile of resumes has little spare time to fully consider each resume or the skills to catch the missing employment date gaps or colleges “attended” rather than “degreed.” In this tight labor market, applicants face a similar challenge to find the great fit rather than wasting time with the firms needing warm bodies or external applicants to interview before settling on the inside candidate. Researching each interested firm is another burden for someone already working with a very full after work life as well.
- Opportunities and Candidates Not on the Internet: By some estimates, as much as 40% of all openings are never posted on line or in print media. Some companies do not have specific postings, but their outside recruiters know which types of qualifications they are ready to hire. Many great candidates are not actively looking but are open to new positions coming from trusted sources. How to access these if the search is limited to online?
For Marion Adams, Director of Recruiting at Abel Personnel, online placement services are just another tool available to her for matching job openings with the right candidate. Abel pays for the postings on several job boards up front (the cost is built into their fee on successful placements) plus other social media, and has the skills to develop a posting that yields results. Marion and her staff expertly filter the results, directly contact the submitter for clarifications, and do some checking before contacting their client or candidate. Plus, they have access to that 40% of people who do not use the internet in applicant and job searches. Together these yield the most cost effective approach to fitting the right applicant to the right job.
Finding the right staffing agency will save your company time and money. Abel Personnel has over 50 years of experience finding candidates to meet your company’s unique needs.
When Abel’s client, Michelle, a senior manager at a local call center, checked out the content of an online posting that Abel had for her job order, she was impressed by how the description mirrored Conduent’s needs. Michelle immediately emailed her reaction, “Marion, you are amazing!”
