Hire – and Get Hired – More Easily with “Come Recommended”

I wish my friend and colleague Heather Huhman had launched her new business, Come Recommended, before I published my recruiting and retention primer Success for Hire, as it certainly would have been incorporated in my list of must-have hiring resources.  Come Recommended is a web service in which job candidates build profiles that include at least three recommendations.  Employers can review these recommendations before deciding whether to pursue a candidate further.  In other words, it saves them a step.

Says Heather about her new venture:  “The idea for Come Recommended came about when I set out to fill my very first job as a hiring manager—an entry-level position for a small public relations firm. We received nearly 100 applications after posting the position to both Craigslist and WashingtonPost.com. I scoured the stack looking for ways to weed out candidates and identify ones with potential.  Finally, I narrowed the list down to five and started making calls. My “phone screens” have always been fairly in-depth because of the position I held with this company. If I brought someone in, he or she would meet with the principal of the firm, and I certainly didn’t want to waste any of her valuable time. I vividly remember loving one candidate for this position in particular on paper and during the phone interview—at least until I asked if she had any questions.  Her question?  “So, what do you alls do over there?” No, that isn’t a typo.

I remember feeling so frustrated that I had just spent 45 minutes of time on this candidate—not to mention the time sifting through all the applications—that I could have been billing to clients. There had to be a better way.  Many experts now claim traditional online job boards are dead. They have become behemoths, bogged down by fake or misleading job ads and résumés of unqualified candidates. And although I encourage candidates not to leave combing the job boards out of their search plan, that action alone simply isn’t enough anymore.

The way hiring managers seek out and employ individuals is changing—rapidly. With the slumping economy, they are experiencing cuts in their staffs, resources and overall budgets. Now, networking, referrals and references reign supreme. Welcome to what I call “recruiting 2.0.”

Being a member of the Come Recommended community can only help you  -so if you’re job hunting or think you might be in the foreseeable future – set up your profile today.

Comments

[Charlotte Weeks]

What a great idea! Having testimonials to show a future employer is always ideal, but it's hard for employees to pull good ones out of a performance review. This ensures that a person's recommendation is written and posted in context.

[Dan Erwin]

Sounds to me like we're moving back to authentic networking again. Only one step more to face-to-face recommendations. Historically, that has been the modus operandi for jobs.

[Alexandra Levit]

@Dan: But what about the fact that this allows you to read references electronically, rather than call someone on the phone? It seems to me that we're moving in the opposite direction (not that it really matters all that much at this stage of the screening process).

@Charlotte: Great point. It's always a good idea for performance to be documented.

[Jennifer]

Recommendation idea is really good! Though I believe in assessment tests too. You know our clients have actually saved their time and appreciate the whole screening procedure. To know what our clients say about us: http://www.hirelabs.com/testimonials

[Alexandra Levit]

@Jennifer: Great to be aware of your firm as a resource. People are always asking me, so thank you!