There are many issues in today’s recruiting environment – how can recruiters better reach passive veteran talent? How can they combat ghosting? How are they going to fill their 30 open billets? Meeting veteran talent where they are and being willing to have networking conversations that serve future pipelines instead of current open billets are ideal traits of today’s recruiter.
ClearanceJobs was joined by Jennifer Burks who has a love of social media marketing and is a a true story teller. Technically, she is in the “business” of Military Transition Assistance through a few different organizations. This has helped her to connect recruiters to candidates – by gaining all of the insights through entering the mind of the secret squirrel.
She is an expert on personal branding, animated marketing, career coaching, and networking.
Ghosting: CAUSES AND PREVENTION
Burks has a passion for supporting veterans obtaining employment from her own experience as a military spouse and watching her service member encounter issues. Through her years of mentorship, she has her own insights into why candidates ghost and how recruiters can be more inclusive.
According to a new survey conducted by Brazen and Talent Board, ghosting is the top recruiting problem among talent acquisition teams. We ask Burks if she has heard stories from candidates on why they may ghost their recruiters. Reasons could be:
- Length in time in between communication
- Bad information
- Impersonal messaging
- Comfortability of service members with their recruiters.
Ensuring your language when reaching out to service members or veteran talent is key to making them comfortable with you and potentially your company’s culture. Burks also notes that many service members she works with have never heard of a pipeline list or understand what it means for recruiters supporting the Department of Defense. “If recruiters are looking to start their brand on social media, let service members know how your pipeline works,” she says.
JOB DESCRIPTIONS AND MINimum REQUIrEMENTS
The quest for the ideal candidate sometimes leads to an empty billet. Would being less strict open up a diverse talent pool of candidates that are passionate and can still do the job? Recruiters should do an audit of job requisitions and ensure they are translated to help reach military talent. In the same light, do NOT just copy and paste from the Statement of Work – those are likely vague and will prevent the right people from applying and encourage those candidates who throw out applications to add another one to sift through on your end. Similarly, went candidates enter the interview phase, use tools like competency mapping to see if unique candidates may be a good fit for your role. Burks says that recruiters can make things easier for candidates from the beginning – translating the job description, but also carrying that on to the interview phase and asking about translated skills specifically.
OVERCOMING TODAY’S RECRUITING HURDLES THROUGH EMPLOYER BRANDING
What tools should recruiters be using to keep their passive candidate pipelines engaged? Be a brand ambassador. Some companies may hold their brand in tight – but they are missing out on a great opportunity for employees (including recruiters) to bring new folks in.
