A Good Recruiter Must Be A Good Hoarder

Knowing what to let go and what to keep is one of the winningest strategies in business, and life for that matter. This is true whether the process is defined in your world as divestiture, downsizing, optimizing, or just simply separating the wheat from the chaff.

In the same way, knowing what to let go and what to keep is essential for building robust talent pipelines. The crux of it all comes down to how organizations evaluate and codify talent for present and future hiring needs.

A candidate in hand is sometimes worth two (or ten) on any given job board. In other words, it may be worthwhile to start taking a closer look at the individuals applying to your organization and not only those who qualify for current jobs. Keeping an eye out for talent that might be a good match for opportunities coming down the pike is a smart way to recruit. 

Perhaps the best way to go about this is to look at how the applicant’s qualifications are aligned with the direction of the organization rather than looking at what they bring to the organization presently. Prescience is key to an effective recruiting program.  

Some recruiters tend to narrow their field of view and only focus on the position(s) in hand when in the dead heat of the chase. This is not entirely a bad approach but it may discourage potentially good talent from seeking opportunities at the company if they feel they are being overlooked.

Focus is necessary when recruiting for the right candidate. There’s no doubt about that. However, not having systems in place to handle applicants who may qualify for future positions is a shortsighted view of a long-term problem. For whether recruiting at your organization ebbs and flows or is continuously torrential, the aim is to keep the talent community excited about your organization and to keep hiring managers off your back. What better way is there to satisfy both constituencies than having a process in place that evaluates and categorizes strong applicants for jobs that may become available later on.

A good recruiter must be an excellent hoarder. But even more important, an effective recruiter must understand the business in which he or she recruits. There are definite advantages to hoarding if there is perceivable value either now or later in what’s being hoarded. However, knowing what to keep requires anticipation of future business needs and this is the point at which good recruiters can become great strategists for the organization if they know what skills will satisfy some future organizational need. 

Being able to predict future hiring needs is important, especially for early stage enterprises whose market position is still somewhat amorphous. If organizations want to optimize their talent acquisition program then recruiters should be encouraged to learn and spot industry trends and to know the overall organization’s objectives. Effective recruiting goes beyond just sourcing for talent. 

Yet, your company may be losing the war for talent because its simply behind the curve on things, such as having no presence on social media where applicants and professionals who are interested in the organization can follow and see updates of career opportunities. There’s more to identifying good candidates from an applicant pool than just cursory review of resumes and stashing them away in databases and folders for later. Winning the war for talent requires a multi-pronged approach. 

The moral of the story is that not every resume makes good feeder for the shredder. So, before you decide to feed the next resume to the paper monster, take a closer look. You may be holding the resume of your next superstar employee.