Hey recruiters, we've got a problem. Can we talk?
After a recent recruiter asked me why so few people respond to her requests for resume (RFR), I said I'd ask around. I personally receive 3-5 RFRs a week. I'm part of the #EmailGeeks Slack community with several thousand Email Professionals so I launched a survey and asked for additional feedback. Here's what they had to say. Simplified for the chart, the actual survey options are listed in quotes at the top of each section below.
#1 - "Pay was too low (or not noted)"
Search Google for "Email ROI" and you'll find various studies that suggest that for every dollar you invest, most industries can expect to see a return of 35-45 times that. But, pay ranges for Email Professionals are often really low. Anyone can compose an email in Gmail and there are services like MailChimp that lower the barrier to entry for small operations, it's assumed that email is easy, and therefore not worth the investment.
However, when you to try to comprehend the field, there's a lot involved in email marketing at any significant scale. Here's just some of the things your Email Professional is going to be thinking about:
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Email is a field that offers few-to-no formal programs of study, meaning any good candidate is someone who is internally motivated, self-taught, and a problem-solver who loves a good challenge. They know a lot, they're really proficient with Google searching, they're humble enough to ask others for help and they take time to write articles about their successes in order to help their peers. In short, these are your rock stars, even if they hate being called that. (There's also a good chance they would consider themselves at least somewhat-introverted.)
What To Do:
- Standardize your job titles. (samples here)
- Standardize pay rates (suggestions here) and include rate or range on job descriptions.
- Think about whether or not you can fulfill your needs (even short-term) with an independent contractor/consultant.
#2 - "Not in the right location / 'Remote' isn't an option"
COVID-19 Update: The game has really changed here. We've been saying for years that we can be successful remotely. The virus gave us a chance to prove it. If you're still insisting work has to be done in an office setting, you are limiting your candidate pool.
Your vibrant exciting open plan office may not be a selling point.
Your location in an expensive "popular" city may not be a selling point.
If you want us to be involved in strategy - participation and presence in the office could be necessary, but COVID-19 forced many businesses to be fully remote and studies have shown productivity has increased without an impact to innovation. (Note: We'd like a balance - we tend to be good at heads-down work, but we're also a pretty smart lot who have a lot of thought-leadership to contribute to your organization if you empower us.)
What To Do:
Job satisfaction is pretty high amongst the #EmailGeeks surveyed. The work is fulfilling, they believe in the company (or companies) they are working with and the pay/location meets their needs. Stop seeing this as a negative and for the love of all that is holy, stop getting offended. Your company might be the most awesome company in the world. But you know what? So are a lot of the places we already have jobs. We feel supported, encouraged and even if you have a great opportunity, we happen to like our "work families."
You have your work cut out for you - there are far more open jobs than there are #EmailGeeks.
What To Do:
Your reputation precedes you. The shortage of Email Professionals means we can be choosy. We're not all choosy about the same things, but a bad reputation will limit your choices. Sometimes, this can be a result of a past experience with a recruiter representing your company.
What To Do:
It didn't make the top of the list, but pay attention on this one. Email Professionals are looking at your job description and disqualifying you because they don't think you understand what we do.
Not that we're special snowflakes, but you can't just take a Project Management or Web Developer role and do a search and replace. You're also going to have a hard time finding someone who wants to immediately wear some non-Email hats in addition to the multiple Email hats they assume they're going to wear.
If we don't think you understand what we do, we worry that we won't be empowered or equipped to make you successful or we might be assessed for expectations outside our skillset.
What To Do:
Despite being ranked lower in votes, this is a lament voiced often in the Careers channel of the #EmailGeeks slack: "They asked for my resume, but it's like they didn't even look at my LinkedIn profile."
We get it - there's a lot more jobs than practitioners in our field. But when you shop the same job to multiple recruiters, when you cast the net really wide, when you recruit based on generic keywords, it becomes noise, and a sense of urgency that typically isn't true.
What To Do:
A collection of quotes:
Your location in an expensive "popular" city may not be a selling point.
If you want us to be involved in strategy - participation and presence in the office could be necessary, but COVID-19 forced many businesses to be fully remote and studies have shown productivity has increased without an impact to innovation. (Note: We'd like a balance - we tend to be good at heads-down work, but we're also a pretty smart lot who have a lot of thought-leadership to contribute to your organization if you empower us.)
What To Do:
- Be willing to offer relocation for the right person (note it on the job description).
- Be willing to consider remote on any contract offerings of less than a year (absolutely a must on any 6-month backfill).
- Be prepared to offer flexible schedules or allow work-from-home a percentage of the time even after offices re-open.
#3 - "I'm happy with my current gig, I see no reason to explore other options"
Job satisfaction is pretty high amongst the #EmailGeeks surveyed. The work is fulfilling, they believe in the company (or companies) they are working with and the pay/location meets their needs. Stop seeing this as a negative and for the love of all that is holy, stop getting offended. Your company might be the most awesome company in the world. But you know what? So are a lot of the places we already have jobs. We feel supported, encouraged and even if you have a great opportunity, we happen to like our "work families."
You have your work cut out for you - there are far more open jobs than there are #EmailGeeks.
What To Do:
- Think about the pay and perks you can offer.
- Think about the challenges and opportunities you can offer.
- Think about what sets you apart from all the other employers.
- Ask for referrals. Even if we're not looking, we know people who are.
#4 - "Don't like the company"
Your reputation precedes you. The shortage of Email Professionals means we can be choosy. We're not all choosy about the same things, but a bad reputation will limit your choices. Sometimes, this can be a result of a past experience with a recruiter representing your company.
What To Do:
- Take a look at your Glassdoor rating. If it's less than a 4, are you actively managing it and addressing the issues raised by your current and former employees? If there's a suggestion of a mess, we're not going to want to wade into it. See also: Why You Can't Dismiss Glassdoor
- Audit your recruiting practices to make sure they're not working against you. (see #7 below)
#5 (tie) - "Description suggested recruiter or hiring company doesn't understand Email Production / Marketing"
It didn't make the top of the list, but pay attention on this one. Email Professionals are looking at your job description and disqualifying you because they don't think you understand what we do.
Not that we're special snowflakes, but you can't just take a Project Management or Web Developer role and do a search and replace. You're also going to have a hard time finding someone who wants to immediately wear some non-Email hats in addition to the multiple Email hats they assume they're going to wear.
If we don't think you understand what we do, we worry that we won't be empowered or equipped to make you successful or we might be assessed for expectations outside our skillset.
What To Do:
- Follow up with candidates to get their feedback on the job description you sent them. Be clear that this is for feedback on the role and not just a second attempt to get them to send their resume.
- Avoid creating "Email and..." roles.
- Avoid a massive list of proficiencies that are all listed as equally important. Even if an Email Practitioner will need to wear multiple hats, be clear on what's the priority. See also: The 10 different hats email marketers wear
- Be clear on whether this is a strategic or straight production role.
#5 (tie) - "Not a match to my skillset / Not my preferred ESP"
From Adobe Campaign to Hubspot, each platform has its nuances. While the fundamentals may cross-over, many email practitioners have spent most of their time on one platform and know it better than the others. Specialization leads to proficiency and a candidate may not be interested in "starting over" on a new platform. Doesn't mean you can't ask, but recognize that many will discard an RFR for a platform they haven't spent time with.
Another issue particular to the Salesforce family of products - Salesforce Marketing Cloud usually refers to two products: ExactTarget and Pardot, email platforms that were purchased by Salesforce and then renamed. A majority of people with extensive SFMC experience will have little to no experience with the other clouds (App, Data, Service, Community, Sales, etc.) If you start talking about development or "apex" or "lightning" a lot of people with SFMC experience will discard your request immediately.
Nor should you expect there to be much skill overlap between Salesforce Marketing Cloud, IBM Marketing Cloud, Oracle Marketing Cloud, Adobe Marketing Cloud, SAS Cloud Marketing Automation or the Google Marketing Platform.
What To Do:
- Be specific about the platform you're using.
- If you haven't yet selected a platform and want the candidate to help you choose, note that.
- If your recruiter is reaching out to someone on their non-primary platform, be specific as to why. The difference between "irrelevance" and "carefully chosen potential future employee" can be solved with just a few words.
#7 - "Negative interaction with the recruiter"
Let's cut to the chase - we're getting bad and irrelevant RFRs, we're getting phone calls and voicemails, we're getting contacted at our places of business.
What To Do:
What To Do:
- Audit your recruiting process.
- Send emails instead of calling.
- Learn from those who aren't responding to your RFRs. (Reach out in a friendly, personal way seeking honest feedback. Not a "last chance for this job" or a "why didn't you respond?" but a very soft touch, geniune, seeking-to-learn approach. We love giving feedback.)
#8 - "Get contacted way too often by recruiters"
We get it - there's a lot more jobs than practitioners in our field. But when you shop the same job to multiple recruiters, when you cast the net really wide, when you recruit based on generic keywords, it becomes noise, and a sense of urgency that typically isn't true.
What To Do:
- Be slower, more methodical in your recruiting.
- Don't send a job out to multiple recruiters. (please!)
- Ask for feedback from those who don't consider it a fit (or don't respond).
#9 - Other/Multiple
A collection of quotes:
"Pay is usually really low with no relocation help, also the recruiters often have no idea what they are recruiting for. I get a lot Saleforce (Developer) roles for non-Marketing Cloud products. Next I would say non remote."
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"(I'm happy with my current role) and usually the pay is also too low"
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"(No recent contacts from recruiter - and that's a good thing)"
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"I find that a lot of job descriptions ask for the moon with a job title that suggests low pay, that they have no idea what they really want, just that they want to get away from their agency or they lost their last star and are now trying to throw something together."
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"Nothing says 'run away' (like a job description that wants everything)"
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"(Low pay) is super common in SoCal but I think that's just recruiters going through their stale positions that they know are under-priced (at least from the conversations I've had)."
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"(I never see any) Marketo RFRs."
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"The only recruiter stuff coming my way recently has been for entry level email specialist stuff. It's like the list they bought with my email address doesn't show my title or experience for the last 4 years..."
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"'Email' keyword for the win"
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"I blocked (recruiter) on Linkedin after he kept messaging me irrelevant positions and I told him I wasn't interested. Then he started emailing my personal email. Then he started emailing my WORK email."
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"I do often tell them to not be so picky about candidates having experience with the exact ESP their client/company is using. When I was a practitioner, I used a different ESP at every job (often more than one). Also, when they demand an MBA I tell them to get a grip!"
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"The worst was I received a message at my work email where the recruiter implied we had talked. I told him to go (Ed. note: Oh, hey, look at the time.)"
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"The recruiter that brought me to (my current role) was amazing. That’s the best experience I’ve had with a recruiter."What To Do:
- Be like this last recruiter!