What about candidate quality? The latest HR/Recruiting survey results

April 19, 2012
JobBoardDoctor

In a recent presentation with Dr. Charles Handler, I discovered that although both he and I focused on the ‘quality of candidates’ – as does anyone involved in recruiting – we weren’t able to find much data on exactly which recruiting techniques delivered the best quality candidates, according to HR and recruiting professionals. As I was preparing the annual Online Recruiting survey, I decided to ask a few questions about that specific topic. The answers were interesting:

When asked to rank recruiting sources by the quality of candidates they produced, respondents ranked the following with Excellent or Above Average results: LinkedIn (69%), Referrals (57%), In-house recruiters (53%), Niche job boards (41%), and 3rd party recruiters (36%).
The top reasons that respondents use job boards included: Quality of candidates (vs. other sources) (68%); Ability to interact directly with job seekers (51%); Ability to search the resume database (49%); Ability to create an employer brand (46%); Integration with ATS (46%)
When asked which recruiting channels/tools they use most frequently, respondents said: Social media (LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.) (75%); Referrals (66%); Company career site (58%); General job board (53%); and ATSs (43%).
The biggest challenge in meeting recruiting goals is still lack of qualified applicants (51%).