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An Internet Job
Posting Strategy
That Works
Good help is hard to
find. And it's going to get harder. The number of job cuts
announced by employers has dropped by an average of 15% each of the
last 3 months. Hiring is on the rise, and wage pressures, if you
haven't seen them already, are waiting in the wings.
Unemployment is at a 4-year low. Anticipate
losing key employees to substantially higher offers -- as much as 30%
above what you're paying them now.
If you've tried posting
openings on the Internet, you probably know two things about it.
First, it's fast, cheap and easy. Second, you get a blizzard of
responses, most of which are irrelevant to the opening you
posted. Is there a way to use this amazing resource to your
advantage? Turns out there is.
Murrel Karsh of the
Chicago board brought up a brilliant strategy he's used to
"auto-screen" replies to Internet job postings. What
he's done is set up a special email box for internet posting
replies. That email box has a "rule" that
automatically sends a response to the applicant, along with an
attached questionnaire that the applicant must complete and
return. (You can do this in Outlook or on your mail server.) Faced with having to answer some specific questions, the
frivolous inquirers screen themselves out. Here's Murrel's
process:
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The questionnaire states that anyone who completes and submits the questionnaire is guaranteed a response. This questionnaire typically takes at least 20 minutes for someone to complete so only very serious candidates respond. It is amazing how thorough certain applicants will be answering the questions. Not surprisingly, these people have tended to be the best employees.
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Typically we will wait until we receive the completed questionnaire before we evaluate the candidate, at which point we look at both the applicant's resume and questionnaire.
If we feel like the candidate fits our needs, we will call to conduct a phone interview (this is stated in the questionnaire). A successful phone interview will prompt us to bring the person in for
a personal interview.
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Before we bring them in we
also like to have them take an online "attention to detail" test. The test we use is found at www.brainbench.com - they offer a free trial which can be obtained by following the instructions in the "pre-hire testing" section of the site. The test is called "Attention to Detail - Express" and can be found easily by using the search function on the site. The test results come back as a percentage of the number of applicants that they scored better than. To validate the test, I first had all of my employees take the test to see if there was a correlation between the test results and performance. While it was not a one to one relationship, all of my top employees scored above approximately 75%. I do not believe I would hire someone below 65% without significant extenuating circumstances.
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Ultimately we bring the candidate in for a
personal interview and make the final decision whether or not to bring them aboard.
Obviously this process is not foolproof but it has enabled us to limit our hiring to people who REALLY want the job (becomes very obvious with the questionnaire) and have very good attention to detail. Ask me in a year and I will then tell you how well it has worked. So far so good.
Murrell agreed to let me
link all his "content" examples for your use &
modification, if you like. He posts on Craigslist.org (free),
Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com
Craigslist
Posting Sample
Craigslist
"How-to"
Questionnaire Sample
Take a hard look at
this. It's the best scheme I've ever heard for making internet
job postings actually work.
Thanks,
Terry Weaver
CEO
Chief Executive Boards International
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