Here’s a simple tip to help increase your ROI on Candidate Development (CD) projects, and make your recruiting efforts more proactive.

I should point out that it is still important to maintain a fairly tight focus on the criteria for the position(s) that initiated the CD project, in order to produce the kinds of people you seek to fill that opening. However, in every search we generate people/resumes/leads that are close but not quite a fit for the current opening.

In some cases people are too junior or too senior. Or they might not have all of the skills/experience that you were looking for in this specific position. Then again, we might also come across people that work in the same department, but have a totally different role. In each of these situations, these people might just be the exact person you’re looking for on another search in the future. Or perhaps they’re the perfect fit for another hiring manager in your company. And if we’re targeting specific competitors/companies where you normally find and hire good talent, then they are definitely worth capturing.

Imagine the next time you need to find a good marketing business analyst. Wouldn’t it be great if they were already in your database, because we captured them while working on a product marketing position? Or you suddenly find yourself in need of a program manager, and that individual is already in your database because we found them during the search for your business development manager position last month.

With just a little time and effort, it’s easy to begin to capture these leads and add them to your database. Check your reports, look at the people that were presented but are no longer candidates for the current search. Take a look at the people who were prospects indicating some initial interest in your company and position. And then there are the people who weren’t interested or qualified. At least some of those people still have potential for future openings. Just check the status notes and it should give you a good indication of whether that individual has potential for future recruiting efforts.

Still want more? During the kick-off call, let us know that you’re interested in receiving proactive resumes/leads. For example, people who come from a target competitor or company, but clearly don’t fit the current search. If we’re searching for a programmer for you, there’s a pretty good chance that we’ll also come across managers of those programmers. Or maybe we’re searching for a marketing manager, and we come across a marketing analyst that reports to that manager.

As I said earlier, it is very important to maintain a fairly tight focus on the criteria for the current search. However, by capturing a few extra leads/resumes from each search, you could give yourself (or another hiring manager) a head start on a future search, and increase your ROI.

Ask us how; our knowledge is your power!

Jim Rock
Click here to read about Jim.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 at 5:00 am and is filed under Candidate Development, Clients. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.