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Recruiting Daily Advisor Editor Steve Bruce recently interviewed expert Kelly Dingee for an episode of his HRWorks podcast. Dingee is a director of strategic recruiting with staffing advisors and an expert on digital sourcing. Here are some of her responses:
HRWorks: Welcome to HR works, Kelly.
KD: Thanks, Steve, glad to be here.
HRWorks: Let’s talk about sourcing online. You do a lot of that, I understand—I think I heard 1,000 candidates a day?
KD: I am capable of that. It’s midday here, and I’ve already reviewed about 1,500 candidates.
HRWorks: Wow. Well, where do you find them?
KD: I actually use LinkedIn®. It’s a fascinating site to work with, but a lot of people don’t know how to leverage it. For example, we have a client who hires a lot of network engineers. Requisitions are always opening. When I go into LinkedIn, I generate at least 100 new candidates.
HRWorks: More specifically, how do you go about it?
KD: LinkedIn’s internal search features are easy to use. Basically, you fill in a box, select what you want. Be aware that a free LinkedIn account will not grant you so much access. I don’t have the highest level account, I have a “Talent Finder” account, which gives you have better access than the free accounts.
It’s also important to search from the exterior of LinkedIn. For example, using Google, you can get to all the pages that Google has stored.
HRWorks: You are an expert at Boolean search, so what specific things do you type in?
KD: I live and breathe Boolean. My favorite search is using the “site colon” command. You type “site:” and then add the domain and extension, a space and your search term.
It’s amazing what companies store publicly on their domains. You’re not hacking when you do this; you’re doing everything legitimately.
HRWorks: We hear talk of recruiters getting hundreds of responses—how do you handle that?
We respond to everyone, however they get to us. Of course, you have to do quality control before doing phone interviews. If the people who contact us don’t meet standards, we let them know where they fell short.
HRWorks: How do you approach someone you found online who doesn’t know you? You don’t want to appear to be a “stalker”!
KD: With candidates, be respectful, just as you would be calling them on the phone. Don’t be too familiar at first. Explain why you are reaching out. Be succinct: what is the opportunity, how can we connect to talk further. I ask people to tell me how they like to communicate—phone, Twitter, or e-mail. Whatever is comfortable for them to get the conversation rolling.
If a candidate wants to know how I found him or her, I track all of that. We do have explanatory YouTube videos, but if someone really wants to know, I can take a candidate through my process.
I maintain records of all the searches I do.
One candidate was upset and refused to believe I found her online. I was able to send her a link to the LinkedIn page she had set up and then forgotten about.
In tomorrow’s Advisor, we will present more of Dingee’s recruiting tips, plus an introduction to BLR’s Premium Research Report:
Employment Branding Today: Putting the Company’s Best Face Forward.