By Mark Bartz

A few years ago, a group of 80 health care/medical industry employers were polled to find out how they find talent for their companies (source: Jobvite Social Recruiting Survey, May-June, 2011). The poll revealed interesting insight and trends that have a very real impact on your job search success. The poll also revealed just how fiercely competitive the job search market place is. So, let’s start with our problem (high competition) before moving onto specific solutions. To make this report interactive I assembled my own questions based on the results of the poll. Think of this as your job search IQ test. Answers follow each question.

Questions:

1) When asked “How do you expect hiring competition to change over the next 12 months?” what percentage reported “somewhat more” or “significantly more competitive”?   (77%)

2) What percentage of these employers compensates their employees for referrals? (69.1%)

3) When asked “How do you use the online profiles of candidates?” what percentage reported “Always Search” or Occasionally Search?”  (74.1%)

4) What percentage of these employers uses LinkedIn?  (86.6%)

 

5) What percentage of these employers have hired via LinkedIn? (94.5%)

The employers were asked specifics about nine tools they use to acquire new talent. These tools are: Social Medial, Referrals, Corporate Web Site, Direct Sourcing, Job Boards, Search Engine Optimization, Campus Recruiting, Internal Transfers, and 3rd Party Recruiters. When asked to rank these tools for “quality” of candidates, the employers assigned a numeric grade based on “10.”  Based on their answers, how do you answer the following?

6) What has greater perceived value – internal transfers or referrals? (Referrals)

7) What has greater perceived value – direct sourcing or referrals? (Referrals)

8) What are the top 3 tools in perceived value? (Referrals, 8.6; Internal Transfers, 8.2; Direct Sourcing, 7.9)

Some conclusions. You need a great LinkedIn profile and referrals to be super competitive. With 94.5% of employers having hired through LinkedIn, realize your profile has become nearly as important as your resume. Since referrals are so critical, it merits asking, “Why?” The answer? 69.8% of employers said referrals resulted in a better “fit” with the company culture and values and 66.8% of employers said referrals resulted in shorter recruitment process.