Sourcing ROI: Resume vs. Non-Resume Info

Posted at March 12, 2009

Depth Matters!

Human capital data comes in many forms – resumes, social network profiles, blogs, bios, etc. – and I have found that a key and critical aspect of sources of human capital data that many people fail to formally recognize is the quality and depth of the information.

When it comes to leveraging information systems such as the Internet, applicant tracking systems, social networking sites, job board databases, etc. for sourcing and recruiting – the operative word is “information.” Generally, more information is better than less information. How useful is an information system if it has little and/or poor quality information (data)?

ATS and Job Board Resume Databases

Resumes are typically deeper sources of human capital data – and while the accuracy of them can be argued (no different than social media profiles) – most resumes contain significant information about the people who wrote them. Even when poorly written, most resumes contain summaries of experience, objectives that can give you insight into the types of opportunities they are interested in, a work history giving you an idea of their capabilities based on their past responsibilities and experience, and of course an addresses - which can be critical in making an educated guess at whether or not they might be open to a particular commute.

LinkedIn is the one stand-out social networking application that has a decent number of profiles with deep human capital data. Although it is NOT a resume database, you can typically find (and thus search for and target) more employment qualification-related information. While LinkedIn calls them “profiles,” and some contain very little information, some LinkedIn users fill their profiles out just as they would their resume. In fact, with the employment market being the worst is has been in decades, there are a number of articles advising job seekers to do exactly that – fill out their profile as they would a resume. It also doesn’t hurt that LinkedIn has a robust search interface, supporting full Boolean logic as well as a number of LinkedIn-specific advanced search operators. Great search interface + deep human capital data = highly leveragable information system for active talent identification.

Social Media – Beyond LinkedIn

While many people in the recruiting and staffing industry get REALLY excited about Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter - I don’t. Before you recoil in absolute horror that I haven’t jumped on the bandwagon with everyone else, let me say that I’m a big fan of social media sites. Yes, I think they are cool. Yes, I use them. But I refuse to get so blinded by the newest “shiny objects” available to sourcers and recruiters that I fail to see their limitations.

Sure - Facebook, MySpace and Twitter can all be used to identify and contact potential candidates. There’s no arguing that point. Twitter is highly searchable – supporting Boolean queries and their own set of advanced search operators (Facebook – you could take a lesson from the folks at Twitter!). However, none of those sites offers much depth of information about the people who use them, or at least not the right types of information that can help a sourcer or recruiter gain any significant insight into specific skills, experience (including precise responsibilities and capability), years of experience, education, certifications, industry, etc.

Shallow Human Capital Data

Facebook and Twitter can be effectively leveraged for employer and recruiter branding, marketing, online community development, and socializing job opportunies (that’s social media speak for “job posting”) – which are largely passive methods of talent attraction. However, as shallow sources of human capital data, Facebook and Twitter are not particularly effective for active candidate identification – or in other words – searching for and identifying candidates with specific experience and qualifications that are highly likely to match specific hiring needs.

There is no doubt you can find and contact LOADS of people using Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and other similar applications. However, in most cases, you have no real idea how much and exactly what kind of experience these people have prior to contacting them, and in many cases, you don’t know precisely where they live. Just because they list that they have their CPA, or that they belong to a nursing association, or they are a “fan” of a PHP developer page - it certainly does not guarantee you of anything beyond that.

Non-Resume Internet Research

Using Internet search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Live, Ask, and Exalead to search for and sift through human capital data can definitely produce results. However, once you go beyond resumes (the deep sources of human capital data), you quickly enter the shallow end of the human capital data pool - press releases, blog posts, articles, etc.

I would never suggest that these shallow data sources can’t be leveraged for sourcing and recruiting – but my point is that the intrinsic probability that any particular non-resume search result is qualified for your hiring needs is LOW. This is because less data means less information available about the potential candidate – leaving us with little to no idea as to their professional experience and qualifications, and even specific location in many cases.

Expect a Return on your Time Invested

Maybe some sourcers and recruiters like to find and contact lots of people because they get paid to just be social and make lots of friends online. Maybe some people think it’s productive to contact large quantities of people who aren’t qualified for any of their openings, now – or in the future, or to contact people who won’t commute to the location they’re hiring for (let alone live in the target state in some cases!).

Well I certainly don’t!

Who does anyway? Wait – please don’t raise your hand (not you – that other person).

As shallow sources of information, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and non-resume human capital data on the Internet don’t often have much professional-qualification-relevant information. Less and shallow information doesn’t really make for a heavily leverageable information system, does it? At least not when it comes to talent identification where it’s more than helpful to know a little bit about someone’s experience and qualifications before you contact them.

Value to the Candidate?

Candidates generally appreciate being contacted for opportunities that are in their “ballpark” when it comes to location and responsibilities. Most candidates don’t appreciate being contacted for opportunities that aren’t. Think about this for a second – what VALUE are you providing to candidates that you find and contact using shallow sources of human capital data when the candidates are in fact not even remotely qualified or interested in your opportunity? Most people don’t appreciate being contacted by recruiters only to end up being used as a tool in your networking/referral recruiting efforts because you didn’t have enough information about them to possibly provide anything of value to them.

Yes, I remember the days of just picking up the phone and calling people with little to no information – but take a second to think about this: Is this kind of practice and process the BEST and HIGHEST ROI method of sourcing and recruiting? I think not.

Critical Candidate Matching Variables

More information/human capital data enables more precise and controlled searches, allowing sourcers and recruiters to be able to make an educated decision to contact people based on capability and experience rather than blind faith or a guess based on perhaps a title alone. With resumes or fully fleshed out LinkedIn profiles, a talented sourcer or recruiter can effectively control critical candidate variables such as location, potential opportunity match, and experience/capability – including years of experience, which can tie into compensation.

Searching for Mr. or Mrs. Right

Let’s look at this from a different angle. If you’re looking for Mr. or Mrs. Right, you have several choices avialable to you. You can read through 4-line personal ads in a newspaper in an attempt to find someone that you think you might be compatible with. This would be an example of leveraging shallow human capital data in an attempt to find the right match.

Or you could leverage technology and try an online service such as eHarmony or Match.com and review fully detailed profiles (deep human capital data) – giving you access to more information about potential Mr./Mrs. Rights, and more insight into and more control over your preferences and potential compatibility. You could argue that profiles on online dating sites aren’t all accurate – but neither are resumes OR social media profiles or bios.

If You Had a Choice

Let me make a point by asking this question: If you were responsible for filling a position for a Business Analyst with energy industry experience, and specific experience working on SAP projects and using UML, which of the following candidates has the higher likelihood of being the right candidate?

LinkedIn

Twitter

The contrast is dramatic. The LinkedIn profile is essentially filled out as completely as a resume would be, and as such, we can feel very good in attempting to contact this person because their experience appears to closely align with our opportunity. The Twitter profile mentions the title of “Business Analyst,” but little else – we have no idea as to this person’s industry or project experience.

In this case, however, we’re lucky – because Andrea is on LinkedIn. Looking at her profile, she does not appear to have any energy industry experience, and we cannot tell if she has any SAP project or UML experience.

If you had a choice between using either an information system that had shallow data on the people contained within, or an information system that had deep data on the people contained within - and you could only choose one – which would you choose and why?

I know which one I would choose – all things being equal, I would choose the information system with the deep human capital information. That way, I can run creative and effective Boolean strings to search for, find, and contact people based on specific experience and qualifications.

Why would anyone choose any different?

Conclusion

You can find and hire people by searching any source of human capital data – resume or otherwise. However, searching Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, blogs, the Internet and other similarly shallow sources of candidate data takes a higher amount of effort for a smaller return – what I call low yield sourcing and recruiting. Does it sound like a good idea to go out of your way to focus on low yield sourcing and recruiting?

I’d argue that the deep sources of human capital data such as resume databases, applicant tracking systems, LinkedIn, and Internet resumes produce 80% of the active-search based sourcing and recruiting results (hires). Conversely, the shallow sources of human capital data such as MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, and non-resume Internet research produce 20% of the active-search based sourcing and recruiting results.

You essentially have two paths:
#1 Find and contact more unqualified people
#2 Find and contact more qualified people

Which one will you take?