Job Advertising Versus Candidate Search
Each recruitment agency in South Africa operates differently. While their core function is parallel, functions and process's vary as much as the agency is unique in the market.
While this may be so, there is great merit in exploiting all resources available to each Recruiter. By this I refer to making use of each from of Recruiter technique namely; Job advertising as well as Job Seeker search. There is a place for each of these means to locating candidates and in fact it would be in the Recruiters best interests to make use of both elements in an all encompassing recruitment style. While each recruitment agency has their set ways of pinpointing relevantly skilled Job Seekers, like with everything in life, you can't expect to win if you don't play or play half heartedly.
Job advertising and candidate / Job Seeker search each have their unique pros and both provide a wealth of means to finding ideal candidates to fill job vacancies. For best results, Recruiters are required to embrace both of these effective methods to finding candidates and apply these individually to each employer vacancy they seek to satisfy. By identifying with each merit of each of these recruiting techniques, recruiters can and certainly will tap into a limitless pool of Job Seekers that will continue to grow and update as often as each is applied.
To understand how to utilise both job vacancy advertising as well as candidate search to your advantage, we must break this parallel function down into the sum total of it parts and identify each plus point on its own.
Job Advertising
Much like any other form of advertising or marketing, job adverting is the 'pull' that attracts Job Seekers to job vacancies they feel they may be well suited to. By advertising your client's staffing needs; candidates may be able to identify with requirements of the role whereby their own specific career objectives correspond to that of the advertised vacancy. In turn or rather as a result of their exposure to the advertised role, Job Seekers are able to recognise skills they possess and opt in to apply to the advertised job accordingly. When advertising a job, candidates are enticed with a call to action to apply which results in unique applications each time a new job specification is promoted. Through articulate application of the job advertisement, Recruiters are able to effectively communicate the precise requirements of the role and Job Seekers can apply these requirements to the skills they posses or lack. There is an age old formula that Recruiters have been applying to job vacancy advertising for centuries and as simple as it is, it in fact encompasses the process of job advertising in its simplest form. AIDA;
A = Attention
I = Interest
D = Desire
A = Action
Attention is sparked upon noting a job vacancy that the Job Seeker can identify with. Without attracting the attention of Job Seekers, usually through the job ad title, there really is no point to any form of advertising, let alone job advertising.
Interest is what essentially 'pulls' the Job Seeker in. Without interest in the role or the company itself, neither skilled nor unskilled Job Seekers will apply and all advertising efforts and resources are wasted.
Desire is the drive and reinforcement of the attention and interest already established in order to get the Job Seeker to act. Without a desire to fill the vacancy, regardless of the initial attention or interest attained, where there is no will there is no way and where there is no desire there is no action.
Action is the final process in the 'pull factor' that comes about from advertising job vacancies. By recognising whether or not the Job Seeker will be able to fulfil the employers staffing needs, this will influence if the Job Seeker will act in the form of an application or not. After understanding the very basic requirements of the role discussed in the job advert, Job Seekers will either be implored to apply or not. If a job advert is too vague or does not describe at least the very basics of the role, despite the desire, the interest and the attention gained, applications will not filter through to the Recruiter.
Job Seeker Search
Searching for candidates can be best understood as 'pushing' the vacancy onto Job Seekers. Online job portals as well as Recruiter candidate pools are where Recruiters search for relevant candidates form a database of Job Seekers. Online Job Portals have become very popular in this sense whereby Recruiters actively search for relevant candidates. Recruiters sometimes subscribe to job portals for this sole purpose and while this is by no means the incorrect method to recruiting, it is best to utilise all resources available when looking for the most relevant candidate (both advertising and search). It has been said that while only searching for candidates is more manageable for Recruiters to facilitate (as they control the number of relevant CV's they wish to pursue), often Recruiters may find that they are 'fishing from the same pool' of candidates. Databases can go stale if not effectively managed, marketed and updated on a regular basis. Not only does this play a part in the success of candidate search, but often employers outsource their recruitment function to multiple recruitment agencies and end up receiving the same CV from each varying agent.
The best way for Recruiters to facilitate an effective approach to attracting the most relevant Job Seeker to a role it is advised that a combination of both Job advertising and Job Seeker search be applied. By encompassing both of these elements of locating ideal candidates, Recruiters can be sure to build their personnel network (pull) and at the same time invite appropriate candidates to apply.
