Why Personalisation is so important
Sometimes, regardless how much you try, things in recruitment don’t go your way. When this happens I cheer myself up spending time on r/recruitinghell.
It’s a funny, albeit occasionally scary insight into the lack of empathy some people put into recruitment. If you’re one of the good ones, and you’re having a bad day — a little time here will confirm you’re doing it right.
It shows why recruiter bashing is an increasingly popular pastime for candidates. When I see some of the crap that gets churned out it’s no surprise us agency recruiters get a bad rep.
We’ve all seen the posts with a recruiter messaging the creator of a 2 year old coding language asking if they’d be interested in a job where they need 4 years’ experience in said language. LOL.
This got me thinking — why does this happen so much?
Let’s set the tone with a very Berlin Cliché — My friend from the UK came to visit Berlin, naturally she was excited to check out Berghain. When she arrived at the front of the queue the bouncer asked her who she was there to see, she knew the line-up, listed the acts she wanted to see — boom. Open Sesame.
Candidates inbox’s are like clubs; if you want to get in…make some effort!
I know for some this is second nature, but I wouldn’t be writing this if it wasn’t still happening all the time. In an increasingly competitive marketplace it’s important to stand out when it comes to candidate attraction.
The more I speak with candidates, and see posts trolling recruiters, the more compelled I felt to share some tips on successful active sourcing. Hopefully this will make the world of LinkedIn a better place for all.
Personalisation is key — I cannot stress this enough! Given the amount of information people willingly share about themselves online in both a professional and personal capacity it’s staggering that (some) recruiters and TA’s don’t use this to their advantage whilst sourcing.
Spend some time doing a little research (or stalking) and find some common ground with someone, then use this as the intro to your message. The first sentence is make or break, make sure yours actually speaks to the person you’re writing to.
Don’t try and sell to people! People don’t like being sold to. Fact. Think about this — how do you know if it’s an amazing opportunity for a candidate, if you’ve never even spoken to them to learn what makes them tick?
Candidates get lots of the same messages in the same tone, it gets really monotonous for them. Tech’s competitive, decent candidates know their value, and their inbox’s suffer the pains. Believe me when I say this — a little bit of empathy goes a very long way.
How would I respond to this message? We all suffer from boring templated messages, but lots of people still do it! Just ask yourself — if this came to my inbox, would I respond?
Active sourcing can get tiresome and personalising everything takes a lot of effort. Believe me I know. But there’s nothing worse than spending lots of time on a task which yields no return right?
Stepping into the recipients shoes can be a great litmus test of whether or not to hit send. Every templated message I receive gets instantly deleted. I like to think most of us are the same.
Someone could write to me trying to sell a paper teapot, if they’ve made some effort to personalise (regardless of how needless the service) I will always respond.
Everyone lucky enough to still have a job halfway through 2020 is likely to be super busy. Don’t waste their time with uninspiring templated messages.
As I always say — you get the responses you deserve.
