Really? Recruiting Communities Nurturing? Hmmmm

I saw press releases this morning by I Love Rewards announcing both The 50 Most Engaged Workplaces in United States & Canada and understand the prestige of being named in this, and similar, awards. In the market of attracting the best and sharpest talent, being known as one of 10/25/50/100 best places to work is like being a Chai Tea Latté instead of just a cup of tea. But there are so many other ways to promote the company and environment to get the right fit to the position.
Where does Nurturing Recruiting Communities fit in this picture?
As you may recall, a couple of weeks ago, I was part of a Blogging Duel with two brilliant people, Jennifer Brogee and Bernie Dyme which gave three very different perspectives on a subject of remote workers. It is happening again! We have dropped the gauntlet by Twitter and challenged each other. Okay, stop jumping up and down so that you can read all of the blogs and get 3 different perspectives, myself, Jennifer Brogee from myStaffingPro and Jessica Merrell of @blogging4Jobs. I am up against some very heavy hitters here.
I guess the first thing to do is to consider the issues that recruiters have in getting a qualified, interested, “form-fitted to the position” person. What are they? Recently I read that the market is changing to a candidate-driven market, and it is more and more difficult to fill those positions with what the client wants. Sure you still have to have access to job boards, ask for referrals, perhaps do some social media filtering and there is always the archaic newspaper ad (really??), but something that could give you the crème du la crème – recruiting communities.
By building these communities, either company specific based, or recruiter based, can help to create a pool of active and excited candidates. But you can’t let the pool get stagnant and begin to get scummy and stinky and not worth being in – and I think you know where I am going with this. You have got to feed it with strong resources, success stories, learning materials and in the case of company specific communities, shouting about all the things that make that company the best to work for. Some of the ways you will want to consider doing this is:
You need to nurture and feed that qualified candidate, move them from passive to active; watching to seeking; wall flower to disco diva; so that when a position comes up, they are so prepared and excited about the opportunity – they will explode out of the gate and into the position.
My opinions for sure – and for some different perspectives check out the other blogs - Jessica's 'Recruitment Lead Generation for Dummies' and Jennifer's "Communities are for Suckers". Thank you so much ladies for being part of this Blogging Duel.

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