Why Most Recruiting Fails
Every once in a while, I meet people who just get it. It sounds like a cliche but there’s a difference between people with good instincts and those with instincts that were taught. You can tell the difference in 20 minutes or less, depending on the questions you ask.
My friend Courtney Martinez is one of those people with really good instincts. She understands that this whole recruiting thing, the marketing thing, all of everything we do is really about people. It’s about the life we guarantee them. The stories we help them write. The home we provide for whatever their passion might be. A job facilitates that life.
So when we talked a few weeks ago to prepare for our Women In HR Tech Panel, I wasn’t surprised that we jumped on the topic of great recruitment marketing. Then she said something that has literally stuck in my head for months now.
When I do something that’s not authentic, it never works out.
She proceeded to share her funniest failures. I shared mine.
But it triggered a different thought for me, too.
The reality is that we have to care. We have to care enough to invest our mental energy and our hearts into actually knowing how to discover passion. If you want to find the best candidate, you have to think about who you’re looking for. Sure, it’s easy to care about what makes them a good fit for you, but what will ensure that you are a good fit for them?
When you shift your recruitment marketing from thinking it’s all about you and your company to focusing on the people around you and the humans you’re digitally and physically interacting with, that’s when you can create excellent things. That’s when the magic happens.At the end of the day, if we can make people feel valued and we can keep building that passion, we don’t have to do a ton of recruitment marketing.
Employees really will do the recruiting for you.*
*And they’ll stay.
That’s a lesson that doesn’t sit behind your ATS and you can’t blame on your CRM. And so this week, this month, whenever you end up reading this, I hope that you take the time to stop using technology for a minute and really think about the human you are looking for.
So stop looking at your lists, checking off boxes, just knocking out all of your work, and start to really think about the people on the other side. Consider humans. And remember, we wouldn’t exist if we weren’t in the business of making other humans great.
Kat Kibben View All →
Kat Kibben [they/them] is a keynote speaker, writing expert, and LGBTQIA+ advocate who teaches hiring teams how to write inclusive job postings that will get the right person to apply faster.
Before founding Three Ears Media, Katrina was a CMO, Technical Copywriter, and Managing Editor for leading companies like Monster, Care.com, and Randstad Worldwide. With 15+ years of recruitment marketing and training experience, Katrina knows how to turn talented recruiting teams into talented writers who write for people, not about work.
Today, Katrina is frequently featured as an HR and recruiting expert in publications like The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and Forbes. They’ve been named to numerous lists, including LinkedIn’s Top Voices in Job Search & Careers. When not speaking, writing, or training, you’ll find Katrina traveling the country in their van or spending some much needed downtime with the dogs that inspired the name Three Ears Media.