We haven't quite got to the stage where job applications resemble internet dating ads, so 'good sense of humour' and 'own hair and teeth' aren't on the list of priorities - but we are becoming a nation of job flirts.
With so much temptation in the form of daily job alerts, online recruitment boards and the opportunities from social networks, it is hardly surprising that workplace 'monogamy' is looking a tad old-fashioned.
More than two-thirds of UK respondents to a poll by online employment site Monster said they were considering a job switch in the next year, while a report from talent management software provider Taleo found 39% of respondents plan to use social networks to find new jobs, 40% to research employees and 32% to apply for job roles.
"Our survey of 1,000 office-based employees makes fairly frightening reading from an employer perspective," says Chris Phillips, Taleo's vice president, marketing. "Only one in three is happy. Two in 10 are actively looking for new jobs, but five in 10, although not looking, are open to offers."
Matthew Jeffery, head of EMEA talent acquisition and global talent brand at software firm Autodesk, takes this argument one step further. Speaking at the Talent Strategy Summit run by Kelly OCG in May, he said: "The war for talent is ongoing and we are competing for the best [talent]. We are not just competing, we are fighting. Not everyone is actively looking for a job. In fact, 90% of the best candidates are not looking - they could be employees' partners or consumers."
Phillips adds: "Recruitment is boring. Employers are hosting Twitter feeds with jobs - but people won't follow this, unless employers tell a story. Candidates need to have a 'gut feel' and emotional commitment. This comes by a two-way, transparent conversation. Recruiters need to have a relationship with people to give them an idea of company culture, because passive candidates can become active candidates at the touch of a button."
The evidence points to a gigantic pool of potentially interested passive jobseekers - those casually looking at other jobs while still employed. "The flip side of this is that, while half of a company's own employees might be open to offers, half of the employees at all their competitors are open to offers from them," adds Phillips. "It is both a big threat from the retention perspective and a big opportunity for recruitment."
Caroline Foote, group managing director of HR Moves, says her company has noticed an increase in movement of passive jobseekers, with half of roles so far this year filled through referrals or passive candidates. "Clients are looking for increasingly rare and specific skills sets and, no matter how specific you are in ads, you rarely receive what you request," she explains. "This means contingent agencies are operating in the search space, researching, approaching and persuading passive talent to look at moving jobs."
Research conducted in April by LinkedIn in the US backs this up. It found 92% of senior leaders in HR and talent acquisition see recruiting passive candidates as central to, or a part of, their recruitment strategy, and 61% plan to increase focus on recruiting passive candidates.
The trend is not uniform yet, however. HR Moves' Foote points to variations between industries, regions and levels of seniority, with HR, PR, finance, marketing and senior support roles more likely to be filled by passive candidates. "When we recruit for roles in the North of England and Midlands, we find the market is still very traditional - advertise, shortlist and interview," she says.
But as the trend gathers momentum, how has this shift affected the recruitment market? Does greater access to far more potential candidates amount to a scattergun effect that makes it harder to hit the target? Does online job browsing mean a massive increase in applications and the need to sift through mountains of paper? Has it made it harder to identify and attract the right staff?
Well, yes and no, say the experts. It has ramped up the battle for talent, and made it easier for candidates to vet employers in advance. "They are looking at you without your knowing it," says Taleo's Phillips. "Your brand is much more transparent - employees are going to have contacts they can tell what it is really like to work in your company."
Canny HRDs have always made it their business to know who the stars are in rival organisations and, on the plus side, access to these potential candidates is now much easier - if you get it right. James Elfer, client partner at Work Group, says recruitment needs to adopt a fresh approach: "We are trying to move away from a company identifying a vacancy and then looking for someone to fill it, towards a company continually talking to potential candidates for when a role comes up," he explains. "It's a more mature method."
The approach needs to work on two levels. Recruiters have to be communicating overtly to potential passive candidates, but also need to be brand-building. Jane Kirk, director in Work Group's search and intelligence division, Armstrong Craven, says about 40% of her work is now about identifying passive people ahead of need. "And reputation management should be central," she adds. "Create and manage a reputation that makes people want to work for you."
Passive candidates need different treatment from the traditional applicant. To draw on the dating analogy again, these candidates need to be wooed; they need to feel desired, special, unique. Being singled out by someone because they have heard something good about you is certainly flattering and flattery is often a great way to kickstart a relationship.
Talking to passive candidates might take the form of invitations to meetings or to join an online forum, for example, but, says Kirk: "The messages have to be tailored to resonate with passive candidates and targeted through the right communications channels."
Social networks are the first port of call. The Taleo report highlighted use of: LinkedIn (21%); Facebook (20%); Google+ (9%) and Twitter (8%). And using social media for recruitment has many benefits, in particular the opportunity to interact with site viewers, uploading videos, updating information immediately and answering questions. Information can be shared.
Matthew Lutz, a resourcing specialist for attraction and channel management at Network Rail, who has used social media as a recruiting tool (see above), has found this effective for addressing misconceptions.
"We face some challenges, in common with many other large organisations - a lack of talent in certain areas and a need to target top talent - but we also have challenges specific to Network Rail, namely public perception of what we do. Many people assume we are responsible for train fares and timetables, for example, which we're not, and they also see us as rather old-fashioned, when we are, in fact, at the cutting edge of new technology.
"Using social media benefits both areas of challenge. We have a digital marketing team who engage with Twitter users who may be moaning about train delays etc - you can't be seen as slow to respond, even when it's not your company that's responsible."
While targeting a specific channel could lay an organisation open to accusations of contravening equal opportunities, Work Group's Elfer says careful research will negate this, pointing out that any medium could be accused of being selective: "You have to research diligently to make sure you understand the audience's media consumption and find the most inclusive medium," he says.
The crucial element with using such an immediate medium is speed, as delays in response can have a frustrating and often alienating effect. "You have to be aware that it is in the moment and you have to respond instantly," says Lutz. "It is not something you can dip in and out of. You have to have a process in place to get answers quickly. Also, you can't be 'Big Brother-ish' with it and delete all the negatives. With social media, you have to continually be looking at how you can update and improve things."
The need for speed raises the issue of extra work, which is one reason why smaller companies have found it harder to get on board this particular recruitment train. The head of HR for one independent publishing firm says her department can't afford the staff hours to interact effectively with passive jobseekers online: "Our online, event and print products are building our reputation - but harnessing this for recruitment purposes is a challenge," she says. "If you don't keep it current, it won't be good enough. We have found using LinkedIn more useful because it is more targeted, but this success has also brought time implications with the number of applications to be sifted."
Advocates of social network recruitment point to their capacity for precision; they can drill down to reach an exact market, and this could be particularly efficient and cost- effective for smaller or niche operations.
Network Rail's Lutz also believes that the availability of interactive information can work as a self-selection for candidates to weed themselves out of the application process. "We have done that with LinkedIn - targeting specific skills and locations," he says. "We also did it three years ago, looking for female apprentices in the Bristol and Brighton areas."
There is still the issue of streamlining all this extra data and managing more applications. Leads and data now come from a variety of sources, while passive candidates won't appear be in applicant tracking systems and any uploaded CVs or information will go stale rapidly.
Using new technology, such as LinkedIn's Talent Pipeline [see p47] means the data becomes dynamic, updating as social network profiles are updated, and making information easier to search, mine, share and manage.
While this era of constant employment flirting might be exciting from the recruitment point of view, it certainly presents challenges for retention. But by ensuring that employees are valued and reputation is maintained, even this aspect can be tackled effectively
"Employers that are sensitive to potential outside attractions for people they don't want to lose are adopting robust retention strategies," says Work Group's Elfer. "For example, identifying their top 200 people and making sure they develop them.
"It is a valid concern, but can be a positive for the employee and for the employer forced to adopt a strategy that leads to retention.
If organisations want to retain their talent, they have to ensure they are developing their talent better than anyone else."
Case study: Network Rail
Matthew Lutz is resourcing specialist for attraction and channel management at Network Rail, which employs 34,000 people in every corporate service, including IT, finance, marketing, engineering, project management and HR.
"My role involves looking at all the different channels available - recruitment agencies, social media etc - and identifying how we attract people to the business at all levels. In a 'business-as-usual' year, recruitment is about 2,000 to 3,000 people, but this year will be slightly higher, as we are opening a new national centre in Milton Keynes.
"We have two strands to talent recruitment. The first is new entrants - apprentices and graduates - and we have done that whole campaign this year on Facebook. Besides allowing us to upload videos etc, it has drastically reduced advertising spend. And it spreads organically, as the number of Facebook 'likes' grows.
"You can include more - information on Network Rail itself, FAQs, CV and interview tips, for example, and tips on how to be a better applicant."
As the process automatically stops taking applications after a certain number have been received, it is not possible to assess whether or not this approach has increased interest, but Lutz says there has definitely been no drop-off in the calibre of applicants. On the contrary, he believes that the level of information and interaction acts as a self-selection mechanism.
"Senior-level engineers and so on are a different market," he says. "However, it is useful to use this as a blueprint and we'll be focusing over the next 12 months on developing interactive programmes on LinkedIn."
Ways to harness passive jobseekers
Packages that let recruiters manage all talent leads in one place, regardless of source
LinkedIn's Talent Pipeline is leading the way here. Developed with input from major corporates that included PepsiCo, Pfizer and First Citizens Bank, Talent Pipeline allows recruiters to import leads and CVs into LinkedIn's Recruiter, and these are then compared to LinkedIn's 150 million members and paired with the relevant profile. Recruiters can then evaluate and build relationships.
Online job 'dating' sites
Jobbook.com is one example. Founded by students and recent graduates in Canada and the US, this job search and recruitment site helps members connect with the right employment opportunities and lets them interact directly with employers. Once they have entered a 'relationship' or job, a jobseeker's profile continues to be matched with opportunities aligned with their skills, qualifications and location.
Recruitment tools embedded into social networks
An applicant would move seamlessly from job ad to application process, switching behind the scenes to a tool that can ask questions and start 'sifting' applications.
