Frequently Asked Questions

What types of positions do you work on?

Our team has over 20 years of combined experience within the technical recruitment field. Our SourceCon trained recruiters have the ability to find and place individuals within all facets of engineering and technology. Here is a partial list:

• Mechanical, Electrical, Biomedical, Computer, Aerospace, Chemical, Automotive, Electronics, Robotics, Material Science, Industrial, Systems, Manufacturing, Geological, Marine, Photonics, Nanotechnology, Mining, Ceramics, and Metallurgical Engineering

• Application Development throughout the entire Software Development Lifecycle

• Infrastructure Support and Security

• Project Management and Business Analysis

• CTO, VP of Technology, and Director of Technology

Whether your company needs to recruit highly technical human capital, our process gets results.

What platforms do you use to recruit different demographic groups? How do you recruit differently in the age of social media?  (Use of video with social media?)

The platforms that jump to mind for sourcing different demographic groups include Facebook, LinkedIn Groups, Twitter, Google+, resume databases, industry associations, Instagram, Pinterest, Github, Meetup, and Conferences (speaker and attendees). There are more options and the best places to spend time depend on the group we’re talking about. 

Video is great for Facebook; photography is still best for LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. We have software that makes pulling together a quick recruitment video cost-effective and painless.

What non-traditional approaches or strategies Do you use for recruiting that are effective?  

The SourceCon Academy offers some pretty interesting tips and techniques for sourcing candidates (all of our team members are SourceCon Academy Graduates). Sourcing candidates with Google Images works and is certainly non-traditional. We also have a diversity search string for females for improving diversity on male-dominated teams. With over 100 popular female names written into the string, it is also effective at getting results and a useful tool to have in the box.

How do you ensure the individuals you are recruiting and selecting are the best fit?  

We use a pre-hire assessment tool called PXT Select to match candidate thinking styles, behaviors, and interests with the specific job and manager.

Additionally, the odds for retention are best when:

• The money is right.

• Career growth is there.

• Quality of life is there (travel, fun, the financial ability to afford things)

• They like what they are doing

• They like the people they work with

• Short distance between work and their homes

• They identify with company values

How do you create a pipeline of candidates?

Candidate pipelines are built with either inbound recruitment methods, outbound recruitment methods, or a combination of both. Most companies start with inbound – job postings and advertisements – because it’s relatively inexpensive and can get acceptable results. On more difficult to fill or mission-critical positions an outbound strategy can be employed.

• Inbound: interested talent applies to the company as a result of job marketing.

• Outbound: recruiters research and then contact candidates directly and persuade them to explore the opportunity. Outbound is often used on tough-to-fill or mission critical roles.

How do you target different demographic groups?

With inbound, we can target demographic groups using sponsored Facebook advertisements, LinkedIn Job Slots, Google Adwords and hashtags to generate exposure in certain categories on a variety of social media channels. It boils down to knowing where your target audience spends their time. For outbound strategies, we research groups, societies, relevant associations and curate relevant keywords to create Boolean search strings that deliver the talent profiles we’re looking for.

How effective are sign on bonuses? 

Sign-on bonuses are great to use when applicants have something to lose,  for example, forfeiting an end of year bonus because they left to join your company, sales people walking away from a book of business with a non-compete, etc. Using a sign-on bonus as a hook is not a good practice.

What methods have you used to get a company’s branding known?     

We’ve used a few marketing styles to get a brand into the market place involving the use of both video and still photography. In conjunction with targeted ad placements on Facebook and sharing throughout LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter, it is very effective. The only limitation here is budget – beyond that there is no limit. Want a billboard on the side of the highway or an ad in Delta Airline’s on-board magazine? No problem!

Do you use specific sites for recruiting specific positions or levels of position i.e. early career, mid-management, executive, etc.?     

Yes, the sourcing strategy is built based on the specific role and that includes the sites expected to be most fruitful.