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JOB HUNTING ON THE INTERNET
How job seekers have wrested control of the the job market.
THE VACANT CHAIR
The bottom line effects of unfilled, long-standing vacancies.
EMPLOYEE REFERRAL PROGRAM ENHANCEMENTS
Three tips for improving your results without raising the ante.
AVOID MAKING SNAP JUDGMENTS
Some tips on how to control the tendency to rely too heavily on first impressions.
THE FACE OF CHANGE
Get used to it. It's coming faster every day.
In the last three years, the Internet has revolutionized many industries. It is the Information Age made
real for the average man and woman of the world. Coupled with the high-powered job market, the Internet
has given the job seeker control of the recruitment marketplace.
The New Meeting Ground
Thanks to the attention of the media, job seekers of all types are discovering the speed and efficiency
of an Internet job search. The recent ad campaigns of Monster.com and HotJobs.com led to a phenomenal
increase in the use of the Internet by both recruiters and job seekers.
Today, it is estimated that over sixteen million working people have their resumes on the Internet.
That is nearly one quarter of the number of working Americans. One year ago, there were less than
five million resumes on line.
With nearly full employment in the United States, why are so many people posting their resumes on the
Internet? Surely not all of them are looking for a better job? As recruiters, we often find great
resumes of people who, when contacted, advise us that they just started new jobs with other employers
who got to them more quickly than we did. With few exceptions, people who post their resumes on the
Internet do so knowing they will receive inquiries from employers. Is it any wonder that many employers
are struggling with increasing turnover?
To Post or Not to Post
For the fully-employed, passive job seeker, the Internet permits a private search of companies and job
postings to narrow the search. There are hundreds of web sites that allow individuals to post their
resumes at no financial cost. However, unless the applicant uses blind contact information, it is possible
to be overwhelmed by the number of calls and contacts from recruiters all over the world.
To avoid all the unwanted attention, many job seekers choose to browse job postings on career sites or
corporate sites and respond very selectively. This gives them control of the process and minimizes the
inconveniences of job hunting. Most major newspapers have developed web-based databases of their help
wanted advertisements allowing job seekers to search them by title, location, or other factors, reducing
the weekly ad search from hours to minutes.
Implications for Recruiting
The implications for the recruitment industry are clear. Our companies' recruitment needs must be thoroughly
communicated and easy to find on the Internet through multiple links. Our sourcing strategies must
include a dedicated daily search and review of resumes gleaned from the Internet to ensure our timely
contact with the viable candidates we identify. And, our processes for interviewing and selecting must
be swift.
The Internet has allowed us to speed up recruitment efforts. Unfortunately, it has also led applicants to expect
faster selection decisions as well.
It seems as though it was just yesterday when everyone was downsizing, right-sizing, de-layering or
reorganizing. Back then, we apparently had the luxury of too many workers for the tasks at hand. In some
instances, we were actually thrilled to have some people resign or retire. Today, with turnover rates running
between 15 and 25 percent for most companies, we fell great pain when people quit.
Today, virtually every organization in this country is running lean and mean. When even one person leaves,
it puts a strain on the entire organization. Why? When the economy is booming and there is a shortage of workers
with the requisite skills, finding replacements is difficult and expensive.
Modern companies have generally adopted the team concept for producing quality work products. But when
a slot on one of those teams is vacant, the workload and stress increases for every other member of that
team, often adversely affecting the team output.
For most teams, a vacancy of thirty days or less can be endured. But longer lasting
vacancies start to create unreasonable overtime demands, morale problems, and
declining productivity, if not additional turnover.
The Costs of Turnover
The costs of turnover or vacancies will vary based upon the duration of the vacancy, the job function, and,
in most cases, the level of the position. The factors that should be considered when calculating the cost
of a vacancy should include: a) lost revenues, sales or production, plus overtime and temporary replacement
costs; b) recruitment and relocation costs; and c) training costs and learning time.
Assuming a vacancy of more than thirty days, the losses can run from 3 to 10 times the monthly salary of
the vacant position. The recruitment and relocation costs are usually 15 to 20 percent of the annual salary
of the position. Training costs are usually directly measurable, the learning curve can be from one month to
six or more months until full productivity is achieved.
For a professional level, $50,000 per year position in a typical corporation, we conservatively estimate
the costs for a position vacant for more than 30 days could be at least $25,000 per month, or at least $833
for every day it is vacant. For many technical positions or sales account management positions, that same level
position could cost the company $75,000 per month or $2500 per day.
In these two scenarios, the costs of this vacancy over 60 days could be $50,000 to $150,000 - - for a
$50,000 a year job!
Whether your organization uses the conservative or the more aggressive calculations, the effect on the
bottom line is still very significant. A company with 80 vacancies in this salary range could be losing
between $4 million and $12 million as a result!
Your COO and CFO may not be using these same exact numbers, but they know there are these kinds of
costs affecting the bottom line. It should be no surprise to any recruiter, then, to hear, - - I don't
care what it costs, just fill it and fill it fast!
If your employee referral program is not producing the results it once did, perhaps it's time to
refresh it. It's a gross misconception that you can increase your hires from referrals by increasing
the bounty or reward. Here are some simple things you might try to rejuvenate your program.
Take your requirements to your employees.
Don't expect your employees to come looking for your postings on your intranet or bulletin boards. Most
of them are too busy to come and get it. Get yourself invited to staff meetings, employee gatherings, etc.,
and personally ask for their help and explain your needs.
Train employees to become lay recruiters.
Educate them on how to network, how to search the Internet, and how to sell the company and its opportunities.
Then, tell them how to get their referrals into the flow.
Make your program fun and highly visible.
Employees have too many other things going on in their lives to remember that the company has staffing
needs that they might help to satisfy. Frequent publicity in a fun, party-like atmosphere can, for very
few dollars, rejuvenate employee interest in participation, whether or not rewards are offered.
One of the most common and most costly mistakes that recruiters make in selection interviewing is relying
on first impressions. If that's all it takes, then most interviews should be over in five minutes!
It is human nature to judge everything we see and hear on an instantaneous basis. We must be careful not
to let our subconscious biases and preferences lead us to jump to conclusions based upon first impressions
or appearances. Diversity will be the first casualty. Quality and creativity are likely to be overlooked as well.
We must learn to control the natural tendencies we have to judge others on the basis of our own values and
experiences, but rather allow applicants the opportunity to fully reveal their own motivations, skills, abilities
and accomplishments. Then, when we have heard and seen all we can in the time allotted, we evaluate that
information objectively in the context of the job we are trying to fill.
Collect information during the interview. Judge it and decide upon it after the interview.
If you think of yourself as an intuitive judge of character, or find yourself relying heavily upon
gut feel in your interviews, perhaps you need to challenge yourself to try to find alternative proof to
your initial impression. Withhold judgment until all your questions have been asked and answered. Then,
weigh the positives and negatives and try to make a fair decision.
For those of us who prefer the status quo, look at what the nineties have given us. NAFTA, globalization,
diversity, labor shortages, GenXers, mega-mergers, rightsizing, e-commerce and so much more. And yet,
we continue to survive.
We are reluctant to let go of the things that gave us comfort in the past. Things like full-time, on-site
workers, who worked in specific jobs for a long time, and seldom quit.
The new reality of the employment relationship includes workers at multiple locations working fluctuating
hours on multifaceted jobs, often with high turnover and/or frequent breaks in service.
Whether you see this as a revolution or evolution, it calls those of us in the recruiting profession to
step forward with new ideas and new solutions to allow our companies to be the survivors in the next
millennium.