I remember the first time I got my first Blackberry phone! I was so excited, it was such a corporate status symbol! My first one was the Blackberry 5810 with the full keyboard where I could send emails from a phone! It was so awesome. My last Blackberry was the Pearl with the trackball! I loved that phone! Then came the iPhone and Blackberry died before it even knew it.
Blackberry refused to believe that anyone would want more than what they were delivering with their phones. Power cell phone users are business people who only want and need office-type functionality. Super secure email. Texting. Calendar. Notes. Who the heck would want to search the world wide web on a phone!? Play games? Apps? Take pictures and video?
Blackberry didn’t see the future. They were the market leader and only saw the past. By the time they figured out their error, it was too late and Apple and Android passed them by so fast, they could never catch up.
You are the Blackberry of Recruiting!
You died but you don’t know it yet.
What are some ways to know if you are the Blackberry of Recruiting?
- You post and pray. I mean posting and praying is your primary recruiting strategy. You post a job and basically pray someone will apply.
- You refuse to believe that “your” candidates will respond, or even prefer, a text message over email. (Pro-Tip: Every level of candidate and salary range, prefers texting recruiters by a lot!)
- You have great talent in your ATS database, but every time you get an opening the first thing you do is post the job to see what “fresh” candidates are out there.
- You believe that a candidate should be willing to jump through your hoops “if they really want the job!”
Any of this sound familiar? If it does, you might not be long for this recruiting world!
How do you make sure you don’t become the Blackberry of Recruiting?
First, you can’t ever get comfortable believing you have it figured out. Just because you get a lot of candidates doesn’t mean you’re great at recruiting, you might just have a great consumer brand. What happens if and when that fails? Or maybe you have a ton of applicants but the best talent isn’t applying. Great, you’re great at attracting the walking dead!
Constantly question your process and test new ways you think might make it better. Can you change something to decrease the candidate drop-off rate? Is there a way to increase the number of applicants you’re getting from your best sources of hire?
Make sure you are always reaching out to candidates to see how their experience is with your process. Blackberry’s biggest failure was not listening to their buyers and thinking they knew better. Right up until they lost their buyers! Don’t lose your buyers, your applicants, because you refuse to listen to them.
Look into the future. Demo recruiting technologies on an ongoing basis. Stay on top of what the newest trends are, and how you can add those into your recruiting technology stack. Copy what others are doing that is working, don’t get caught up in making it your own way. Copy. Make it better. Repeat.
I LOVED my Blackberry, right up to the moment that I didn’t. That is your candidate dilemma you must constantly be concerned with. They love you right now, but will they love next year when something better comes along?