systematicHR

There are many types of job seekers, and knowing which you’re recruiting for can make your job attracting the right applicants and getting them through to the offer process much easier.  Here’s a profile of 3 major types.

The High Maintenance Job Seeker
High maintenance job seekers tend to increase when the stakes are higher.  These might be for senior talent or leadership positions.  In fact, it’s perfectly appropriate for these job seekers to be higher maintenance – there’s more on the line for both the employee and the company.

The high maintenance job seeker is marked by the need for more attention, more information, more interview time, more decision making time, and more negotiation.  The reason for the extra time is simple – money is not as important.  When a senior talent or leader is thinking of joining your organization, the employer brand, culture and peer group are exponentially more important.  It takes time for a person to decide if the employer brand is real and if the employees that surround them will match the personal needs of the job seeker.

By tailoring your recruiting strategy to the high maintenance job seeker for the appropriate positions, you’ll be more able to understand their unique wants and needs and have more success in converting them to employees.

The Habitual Job Seeker
Being a habitual job seeker is not necessarily a bad thing.  Most of these people should probably be consultants, but not all of them may qualify.  At the lower levels of employment and maybe at the senior levels, habitual job seekers may not be desirable.  At the lowest level it may not actually matter, but you don’t really want to train receptionists and administrative assistants on an ongoing basis.  Similarly with senior leadership positions, they will need enough time to execute on their strategy and see it successful.

In the middle tier, there might be need for short and mid term employees for specific projects or to act as turnaround agents.  These are the perfect spots for habitual job seekers.  They enjoy new challenges and get bored easily if they don’t constantly try new things.  Occasionally you’ll find a habitual job seeker that is worth hanging on to (in fact there are many out there who are wonderful – they just have commitment problems).  This is where your recruiting department’s partnership with talent management is critical.  Transferring these employees from project to project or allowing them a growth path unrestricted by manager’s desires to “hold on” to them can give you the benefits of these employees for a much longer time.

What’s important about the habitual job seeker is that the work is important, but not the employer brand, culture, or other employees.

The Indifferent Job Seeker
The indifferent job seeker may be the most problematic.  Even with alternatives where high degrees of employer brand exist, the indifferent job seeker is really looking for the highest wage.  This employee is hard to engage and will easily choose to leave when a better wage opportunity exists.  Identifying and avoiding these types of job seekers early in the process and certainly before you offer them a job will save you much headache in the future.