How scouting online to fill your company’s talent needs is eerily similar to finding your significant other through popular dating sites and apps.
As the harsh glare of Valentine’s Day finally fades away from our Twitter and Facebook feeds, let’s not rejoice, for the painstaking task of finding our perfect match lives on in the business world.
As the Web evolved in the ‘90’s, it had a significant and lasting impact on both online dating and professional talent sourcing (e-recruitment); two institutions that are really not so distinct. Each aspires to bring together two parties who, when properly matched based upon key criteria, will make the other better and set the stage for a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship. In honor of cupid, we thought that we’d conduct a current compare and contrast.
The Profile Proxy
Online Dating:
In this context, romance is not sparked by an in-person glance stolen across a crowded room but rather via an algorithmically ordained alignment of search criteria and profile attributes.
Recruiting:
The equally impersonal, but all-important professional profile is the gatekeeper to career opportunities. Proper photo, infusion of keywords, a headline setting the hook and overall completeness of your profile all play a key role.
A Closer Look:
In terms of professional matchmaking, LinkedIn is the place to be. Beyond its sheer size and resultant networking capacity, an estimated 94% of recruiters use LI to vet and contact candidates. In terms of profile elements, 19% of recruiters look only at your profile picture and 56% use only the headline and photo combo when making an initial determination. Not surprisingly, profile photo and headline also rank 1 and 2, respectively, for dating sites.
Right Place, Right Time is Essential
Online Dating:
It boils down to your availability and willingness to frequent locations where you believe you will find your perfect match. Clearly, a committed atheist is not going to sign-up for ChristianMingle.com in search of someone with mutual interests. Similarly, someone (not a slime ball) in a committed relationship would not be expected to be trolling the dating sites in search of a good time.
Recruiting:
Interestingly enough, and in contrast to online dating, an employee in a committed relationship with an employer is not expected to refrain from leaving the door open to new opportunities by maintaining a current and complete LI profile. In fact, the majority of great hires come as a result of recruiting non-active or passive job seekers. By relying solely on job posts, companies are guaranteed to get the best of the “uns” – the unemployed, the unqualified and the unhappy.
In terms of “right place”, companies must find the networks, groups and forums in which their desired pool of candidates tend to congregate. In this context, both companies and candidates will benefit by producing original content directed to entertain and inform those in the field. After all, you wouldn’t go to a singles bar just to sit idly by as all the action unfolds, would you?
A Closer Look:
Due to a fluctuating and slowly improving economy, job security is still a concern of today’s employee. Employees perceive career progression through a lens of social media, where the ease of applying and receiving interest from outside employers is constant. The need to always be networking, or “playing the field” if you will, on both sides is critical. Social recruiting is essentially about going where your audience will be.
Last year, alone, 73% of recruiters successfully hired a candidate through social media according to Kimberly Kasper, CMO of job platform Jobvite. Today, social networks are so fundamental that the Social Recruitment Monitor, a tool measuring the effectiveness of social media recruiting efforts, ranks employers’ reach, engagement, and interactivity to determine company standings. Thankfully, online dating has not been as quick to post our rankings.
Moving Past the Profile – Is This Person Who They Claim to Be?
Online Dating:
Singles cannot believe every profile they come across. “Oh, your divorce isn’t final yet and you live with your not quite ex in order to cover expenses. Great!”
Recruiting:
Shockingly enough, recruiters cannot believe every profile they come across either. “Oh, you’ve listed Web development as a key skill but the only work that you’ve ever done involved setting up a Tumblr blog? Great!”
A Closer Look:
As in all that shines on the Web, buyer beware. Given the ability for anyone, let alone a well-funded company, to conduct detailed research on a person of interest, it is remarkable that profile embellishments live on today. Given the sheer volume of participants, both online daters and recruiters often approach only the shiniest of profiles, only to find that their filters have betrayed them. Whether you are expecting George Clooney on your date or a superstar candidate at your interview, it is important not to make any assumptions. The digital age of hiring (and dating) requires pro-active pre-screenings, background checks, skill assessments and reference-based verifications.
Mutual Friends
Online Dating:
When wandering the frightening unknown that is the dating app, a sweet comfort is found in the common friends feature. Relax and stay safe in your extended network.
Recruiting:
Regardless of whether we are discussing corporate recruiters or recruiting agencies, mutual connections are effectively leveraged to acquire talent.
A Closer Look:
The hidden job market is thought to account for up to 50% of all hiring and it is, for the most part, only through inside connections and similar back-door techniques that said job market is accessed by job seekers.
According to Jobvite’s 2014 Social Recruiting Survey, 40% of hires on the platform are made possible through employee referrals. More companies are promoting referrals with bonuses and for good reason – it does not only bring on board great candidates but also includes a pool of applicants not actively looking for a job. But why stop there? A recent trend reported by The New York Times shows companies requiring employees to get to work on LinkedIn, posting projects, job openings and accounts landed to ripple through the network and draw attention to the firm.
Communicating
Online Dating:
For goodness sake, please don’t engage in mass communications to prospective love interests. Sending boilerplate in batch-n-blast fashion is both lazy and lame. Seriously, is this not tremendously disrespectful?
Recruiting:
For goodness sake, please don’t engage in mass communications to prospective candidates. Sending boilerplate in batch-n-blast fashion is lazy, lame and tremendously disrespectful.
A Closer Look:
In the case of both online dating and recruiting, the perception of efficiency associated with batch communications results in the reality of ineffectiveness.
The First Date
Online Dating:
After all the preliminary online pleasantries are addressed, and no matter how good they look in pictures or on paper, family and friends will eventually have to sign off on your new love interest.
Recruiting:
Never be hesitant to place candidates on as many interviews as you see fit prior to hire, assuring that every team and department that interacts with the position is in agreement.
Online Dating and Recruiting Converged
For years, our industry has discussed attempts by start-ups to become the eHarmony of recruiting, matching employees with candidates through mobile apps and surveys and cultural fit and so on. But in 2015, there will literally be an eHarmony of recruiting.
The eHarmony recruiting assessment will consist of three parts: 1) skills and competencies; 2) values and culture; and 3) personality. Some aspects will be powered by pure automation (CV scraping) and others will require interaction by both companies and candidates. Personally, I believe that the platform will fall short of expectations as I’ve yet to find software that is as capable of accounting for key fit nuances or as accurate as a professional talent evaluator. Time will tell.
