The top 3 hiring sources for most organizations are; Employee Referrals (24.5%), Career Pages (23.4%) and Job Boards (18.1%)  *source CareerXRoads

According to my iPhone calculator that accounts for 66% of hires.  Guess what?  You don’t need a “talent acquisition consultant” to drive applicants to any of these!  As a matter of fact 6.8% of hires are from a “direct source” meaning an internal recruiter is responsible for 7 hires per 100!

Based on this data, I am amazed that so many talent acquisition teams are simply doing it wrong!  “But, someone has to manage the applicants when they come in…” and “someone has to post the job description and make sure they go to the ATS…”  I say “Really?”

“Well there is employer brand integrity…” and “we have to build a pipeline”, again I say, “Really??”

Hear me out, I am not saying companies ditch their recruiting expertise, I am saying the role has evolved and you need marketing and sales  wrapped in a recruiting body.   Lame, long-winded job descriptions provided by HR are pointless.  Lazy social media post “Hiring” with a link to long-winded descriptions is as useful as a teat on a boar hog (for you non Southerners, I’m saying boobs on a boy pig)

Check out these 12 tips to get you started on the road to recovery:

1. Data; know it and use it.  Where are your top hiring sources? (not applicant sources, HIRING sources), if you don’t now, that’s a problem.
2. Marketing;  Sell top talent on why they should leave X and come work for Y over A, B ,C, D, E…..
3. Two way communication; it’s not a “talent community” if both parties are not speaking to each other (more on communities in another post)
4. Shorter is better; postings should be short and to the point and use a sizzle header (meaning, you don’t want every job to read the same in the first two lines of Google, Indeed, Monster etc… think about it…..preview panes)
5. Ditch the “requisition mentality”;  build a community of engaged people who you hangout and share two-way dialogue with, vs “here’s my job, are you interested”?  Your lack of hires from this silly source should be proof enough.
6. Create content;  Create useful content such as blog posts, employee testimonials, video documentaries of your employees etc… this is different from pushing corporate content about how “Everything is Awesome”
7. Be open;  in social, in interviews, on your profiles, on the career page.  Do not delete negative comments, address them.
8. Storytelling; develop a real story and use it to attract targeted talent, quit wasting time blasting and hoping someone bites.
9. Employee Referrals; it’s more than “increase the bounty”….give your employees a reason to refer people to you organization, if your org sucks than change it, if you are unable to change it leave and go somewhere great!
10. Career site; it should kick butt and have very little copy (words) and heavy on pictures and video..AND allow for a community where both parties can speak.
11. Job Boards; don’t ditch them quite yet (I would have said differently a year ago, however the data supports this statement) but use the correct ones and source heavily from them…meaning identify companies you want to pull from and speak to people in said company and then ask them “who do you know”… it really works!
12. Sourcing; if you’re sourcing team brings you the name and contact for someone who fits the bill but does not have a “resume” pick up the frigging phone and RECRUIT them; resume does not equal candidate, people who potentially fit your role equal candidate.

I could go on but I believe you get the point.  47% of the workforce in 2014 will be Gen Y, guess what?  They are the Twitter reading, Tumblr trolling, Instagram showing and YouTube watching generation.  They ain’t got time for most of this!