Interview With A Passive Candidate

We found him, curled in a fetal position, snoring through his lunch. Looking through his email, as long as he was sleeping, we noticed a folder called "Do Something With This Stuff". Opening it, we discovered hundreds of incoming emails that had a variety of messages that said "If you are not interested in receiving any more mail like this, complete the following instructions." Apparently, he wasn't interested enough to complete the instructions.

Since lunch was ending, we jiggled his arm to wake him.

"You're not my boss", he said accusingly. For a moment, we were worried that we'd found a passive-aggressive job hunter by mistake.

"No, no, we we're told that you were a passive job hunter."

"Well, my boss seems to wish that I were a more active one", he mumbled in reply. "I don't usually wake up until a half hour after lunch. What's so important?"

"We're doing field research into what it takes to recruit a passive job hunter", we said.

"Oh, that's nice", he replied.

"What do you think makes you a passive job hunter", we inquired.

"Uh, I dunno", he opined.

"Well, what kind of job would you like", we interrogated.

"This one's not so bad", he articulated.

"Well, tell us about your dreams", we urged.

"Uh, I wish I had a job where my sleep wouldn't get interrupted. Then I could have more dreams", he slurred.

"Hmmm", we gurgled knowingly, "did you know there's a whole industry devoted to finding passive people like you?"

"Oh", he slurped, "That's nice. Are we done yet?"

"One last question", we assured him, "What's your favorite job board?"

"Huh?", he asked drifting back to sleep, "What's a job board?"

It overtakes all traditional hiring sources including newspaper classified ads which now only account for 5% of new hires.

DirectEmployers Association, a non-profit consortium of over 200 leading U.S. employers and operator of the JobCentral.com employment search engine (www.jobcentral.com), released the results of an in-depth industry study, conducted on its behalf by strategic management and technology consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, that shows the Internet is now the primary hiring source for employers.

The study of hiring practices at leading U.S. companies revealed that Internet sources produced 51% of all hires in 2005 with the largest source of hires being the employers' own corporate web sites, while newspaper classified advertisements were the source of only 5% of the new hires.

According to the study, individual percentages of new hires for each Internet source are: Corporate Employment Web Sites: 21%; General Job Boards: 15%; Niche Job Boards: 6%; Social Network Web Sites: 5%; and Commercial Resume Databases: 4%.

Employers reported that they find the highest quality candidates and receive the highest return on their investment from their own corporate web sites and from employee referrals. Financially, while General Job Boards represent the highest recruitment spending category for corporations, capturing 27% of the recruiting advertising budget, employers in this study reported that such Boards generated only 15% of new hires in 2005.

In addition, as the economy heats up in 2006, employers report they will significantly increase employment related spending in the following key areas: Corporate Employment Web Sites: 74%; Employee Referrals: 68%; and Social Networking Technology: 60%

According to Dr. Rich Cober, the Booz Allen Hamilton team lead, this research report "provides clear evidence that the Internet has transformed the way American employers attract and hire employees. As we look at 2006, employers are giving serious thought to how the Internet can be better used for driving applicant flow. In light of recent regulatory changes, including the new definition of an `Internet Applicant`, employer efforts to focus applicant flow and provide clear direction on how individuals should express interest in jobs is timely. Responses indicated that employers anticipate directing a greater proportion of applicants through their own corporate web sites rather than any other online source in the year to come," said Dr. Cober.

A downloadable copy of the "2006 DirectEmployers Association Recruiting Trends" research report is available at http://www.jobcentral.com/DEsurvey.pdf

John Sumser

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