Bright Recruiter: Articles

Twitter is, hands down, my favorite social network. It's a great source of information and learning, and a wonderful way to connect with people who share similar interests. As a recruiter, it's also great for sourcing candidates. Despite the concise nature of the tool, there's a wealth of data to be found - if you know where and how to look.

Twitter's Advanced Search

Start with Twitter's advanced search.

Let's say you're searching for an email marketing manager in San Francisco who specializes in marketing automation - just type what you're looking for into the various fields to search both tweets and people that match those keywords (alternatively, I can just type marketing automation near:"San Francisco, CA" within:15mi into the search bar at the top).

These are the results I came up with:

The first one is a promoted tweet, which has no mention of my keywords - so I just ignore it. But the next three are very interesting indeed.

1. Josh Mack is a marketing professional in San Francisco. Upon further review of his Twitter page, there isn't a whole lot of information about what he does, but it looks like he works for Shutterfly. No problem, he comes up first in my search for him on Linkedin - and I can easily find that he's the CRM Manager at Shutterfly. He is responsible for managing "all lifecycle and automated CRM email marketing campaigns" - cha-ching! Sounds like a great candidate to reach out to.
2. The second tweet belongs to Carly Guarcello. Again - not a ton of information about her professional background, but it's clear that she works for Achievers. A quick Linkedin search later, and we've found that she's the Marketing Automation and Campaign Specialist over there - boo-yah!
3. And the third result could potentially be the best of them all! Mitch Patel is a self-proclaimed "modern marketer" at Eloqua, which happens to be a top of the line marketing automation vendor. His knowledge of marketing automation tools and best practices has got to be astronomical, plus I'd bet he knows a TON of marketing automation professionals. Goldmine!

Now, I do want to include a disclaimer here that I'm searching for marketing people, who are most likely to be on Twitter and Linkedin - which has contributed significantly to how easy this search was. You are not likely to have this kind of luck for every position you're looking to fill - and you should keep mental notes of which positions Twitter works well for, and when you should source elsewhere. OK, back to the article...

You've Found Great Candidates, Now What?

1. Start by responding to the tweet you found from your search - and keep it short (140 characters!) and catchy. Something like, "Your enthusiasm for marketing automation is exactly what we need @BrightJobs! Interested in a chat? We're tons of fun http://goo.gl/Q0lkv".
2. Add each candidate to a Twitter list so you can easily keep track of who you're interested in, and keep up good engagement with them. Get their attention by retweeting, favoriting or replying to some of their other tweets.
3. Follow up later in the week if you haven't heard back. Sometimes, candidates don't contact you back because they were busy and forgot, or your message slipped by them undetected - don't let a great prospective candidate slip away just because you didn't connect on your first try! At this point, it's recommended that you also try a different medium of engagement - perhaps a phone call or email, if you can find it - just make sure you reference your original message on Twitter.

Reaching out via Twitter works because most in-demand candidates aren't being bombarded on Twitter, like they are on Linkedin, and it's very quick and easy for them to respond. Although you can't include much information to sell your candidate on working for your company, you can easily provide a link with additional information and next steps.

Do you use Twitter for recruitment? Share your experiences and best practices below!

There’s been a lot of discussion lately about Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer’s decision to cut off employee’s current work from home arrangements. While most of the talk is condemning her action, there are some who agree with it – including Yahoo! employees.

The big issue with this sort of change is that many don’t consider it a luxury to work from home – they accepted the position under the impression that they would be able to work remotely – either because they don’t live near a Yahoo! office, because they are working parents, or any other variety of reasons. Makes sense they’d be peeved.

However, some people were abusing the privilege. Marissa found that remote employees were slacking off by consulting the VPN logs and made the decision based on cold, hard data. She’s under a lot of pressure to turn the company around, and believed that this decision was necessary for the good of the company.

Sure, she could have just fired those found to be abusing the system, but it goes further than that – she wants to take this opportunity to create a more communicative and collaborative culture.

To quote the memo, “To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side. That is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices. Some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people, and impromptu team meetings. Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home. We need to be one Yahoo!, and that starts with physically being together.”

Marissa didn’t have the luxury of setting these expectations from the beginning, but she is now tasked with making changes that will turn the company around – and she believes this this change in culture is part of the solution. As the CEO, she is responsible for ensuring that Yahoo! attracts and retains the employees that fit in with the culture and expectations to ensure the continued growth and success of the company.

Those that don’t fit in with this culture are encouraged to find one at another company that will be a better fit. In the wrong environment, a person's talents and abilities won't be fully utilized. A person that prefers to work alone cannot, and will not, flourish in a collaborative culture - which brings them, their team, and, potentially, the entire company down.

Marissa knows that the company culture affects the kinds of candidates Yahoo! will attract, and is making the necessary changes now to ensure that she gets the right people into the organization.

Great talent is hard to find.

Fox News recently interviewed TurboSquid, a tech company in New Orleans, after Bright Labs announced that NOLA was among the top 3 fastest growing regions for tech jobs.

They explain an issue that hits close to home for us here at Bright – that the demand for talent outweighs the supply. As they mention in the video, business is good and they need more software engineers to drive the production they have the demand for. But they just can’t seem to fill their positions. Louisiana produced less than 430 computer science grads last year, and jobs are being created much faster than they can be filled.

So, what’s a tech company to do? Here at Bright, we’ve expanded our search for great candidates worldwide – bringing in talent from every corner of the earth to create our world-class team.

And today, despite any objections from our HR department, I’m going to share all of our secrets…

Build a World-Class Employer Brand and Culture, and Make it Known

We pride ourselves on being a great place to work. We have a team-oriented structure with a flat hierarchy that allows each person to contribute in a meaningful way. We have a great startup culture that includes an open office space (no cubicles) so we can foster teamwork and innovation. We also have fantastic teambuilding events, like distillery tours/tastings and bowling, plus we celebrate birthdays and holidays together.

All of these things are the reasons we’re able to retain our talent, but it’s also important to share this information in order to attract top talent. We do this mainly through word of mouth (hello, referrals!) and social media, but it’s also on our website and mentioned in each of our job postings. That way, whether we’re reaching out to a candidate, or they found us, our employer brand and company culture are front and center for a candidate to review and evaluate against their professional interests and goals.

For a top candidate that’s willing to make a long distance move and has endless opportunities around the world, this information can be a deciding factor in whether or not to consider, or accept, an opportunity with your company.

Be flexible with interviewing.

One of our engineers cited our interview process as one the reasons he considered an opportunity with us. We allowed him to do a phone interview and take our coding challenge remotely – so he didn’t have to spend time and money flying out to California before we got to know each other a little better. This gave him a sense of who the people here were so, when he came out to visit in person, he wasn't completely in the dark.

Foot the Bill/Take Money out of the Equation

Bright covers many of the interviewing and relocation expenses, removing finances as an obstacle so the candidate can focus on the opportunity and fit. This includes interview traveling expenses, relocation and moving expenses, work visas for eligible foreign workers, and even assistance with temporary housing if an employee has not had time to find a place on their own.

By taking money out of the equation, candidates don’t have to worry about costs associated with interviewing for a job that may not pan out, or moving across the country when they could probably find a job closer to home. Remember, top candidates are in demand everywhere, so if you want them to relocate to work for your company, you need to make it an easy decision.

Implement a Flexible Vacation Policy

Bright has an unlimited vacation policy, which one of our engineers cited as one of the reasons he accepted our offer. Our flexible time off policy allows our employees to take time off and recharge as needed, but it has the added benefit of allowing our non-native Californians to return home on a regular basis. Especially for an employee that’s moved across the country (or across the world!) with few personal contacts in a new place, it’s important that they don’t feel stuck within the constraints of company vacation days.

What do you do to attract relocation candidates?

To find qualified candidates nationwide, sign up for a free trial of Bright Recruiter.

How much time do you spend screening candidates? A whole day can be spent reviewing resumes to create a shortlist, followed by 30 minutes per candidate on a phone screen, and then 1 hour or more per candidate for a first round interview.

This webinar recording from SocialTalent shows you how to shorten the screening process so you have more face time with your most qualified candidates.

They review:

• Bright’s CV screening tool: This tool helps you save time on screening resumes - simply add your job description and upload resumes, and the Bright Score Calculator will rank each candidate against the job description you've entered, in minutes - rather than hours. Each candidate will receive a score between 0-100, and those with the highest score are best suited to move on to the next step in the recruitment process.

• SurveyMonkey questionnaires: Once you've identified your shortlist from Bright, send them a short qualification survey instead of scheduling a phone screen. This saves you time, and offers the candidate more flexibility in terms of scheduling. You can set up a 10 question survey for free, set a deadline for completion and quickly sort through the results to bring forward only your best, and most qualified, candidates.

• Sonru’s automated video interviewing tool: To save time on your first round interviews, try using this automated and recorded video interview tool. This allows candidates to answer your preliminary questions on their own schedule, and gives each a more consistent experience. You can then quickly review the candidates on your own schedule as well, and bring in only the most qualified for an in-person interview.

For more specifics, watch the webinar: