These are some early morning shots at a job site… well before 7am. Jobsites are peaceful and quiet… but not for long. Another great construction day in Austin Texas.

NOTE: due to the sensitive and confidential nature of some placements, NOT ALL positions are listed here.

Call our office at 512-258-5336 to speak to one of our Strategic Placement Specialists to confidentially discuss your qualifications and what position you might be best suited for.

We value your trust in our firm and we assure you that all resumes (and contact with our firm) are always kept in the strictest of confidence.

Finding good candidates isn’t hard. Finding qualified applicants can be difficult. However, finding the best-fit talent, both in culture and in skill-set, can be excruciating. Your recruiters do all they can, but the candidates you want just don’t flood your company doors. So how do you make them come to you? Use these 6 tips to optimize your job posting and recruiting efforts.

1. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
– Candidates can’t find your job opening if you don’t use the right keywords to target them. Research shows that 67% of candidates will use a search engine to browse for jobs. Without proper or effective SEO keywords, your chances of finding a qualified candidate pool are slim.

However, while searching for that best-fit talent you need to look beyond the keywords. Star with the last two pages of search results rather than the first two pages. You won’t find some candidates using standard keywords that have very little online footprint. For example, if the candidates profile indicates they live “in the D.C. area and works at Fort Meade, then you know the candidate has to have a certain level security clearance. Recruiters relying solely on keyword searches will miss these candidates,” said Pete Bugnatto,
Strategic Sourcing Specialist at Lockheed Martin.

2. Online Communities
– This is a great avenue to pursue if you’re looking for specialized talent, in addition to the niche job boards. As a recruiter, you have to look and post in the right places. If a construction position is open, posting to a general community will get you a general set of skills. However, posting to a site like LinkedIn’s Connected App, Flickr, Pinterest and Hashtags on Facebook and Twitter.

Use Flickr and Pinterest to search for images of construction, project manager, new development because many people choose to share visuals of their achievements/accomplishments.

The Connected App can identify people you are not connected with but should be. Connected gives relevant updates about candidates, e.g., job changes and work anniversaries, so you can make contact when it matters
most.

3. Stay In Touch
– These days there are many ways to stay in touch with past and potential candidates. One of the most reliable but mostly overlooked in today’s society is the PHONE. Some recuiters just don’t call anymore so this is a way to stand out. Ask the questions, what do they want to do, where do they want to go with their career, and where do they want to be located.

Don’t stop at the phone, keep in touch with past and potential candidates by email or social messaging when they have made a change. Open a conversation with them on their change and why wouldn’t they want to work for your company. Take that moment to congratulate them and keep your name out there in case of another change and you have that perfect position.

Communicate with your current, new and past employees.

Ask the recent hires for feedback, how was the interview process, how did the placement transition go, did your communication through phone and email keep them interested. Also, when speaking with a prospect let them know exactly how you found them. People like to feel wanted and they will likely respond.

Get past employees to stay in touch via snapchat or email so that you can stay up with their current jobs and learning experiences. This will give you a bigger prospect list when that perfect job comes open for a past employee. Ask your current employees to stay in touch via snapchat, phone and email as well so that you can be looking for the next great position in case the one they are currently in is temporary.

4. Find Recent
Graduates – Partnering with universities and colleges gives your company a unique opportunity to tap talent before they even reach the professional workforce. Internships are popular gateways to the growing talent field; in fact, 97% of companies plan to offer valuable internship programs in the next year.

5. Social Listings – Not all social media is social. Since companies have broken ground on social media platforms, professional development and connection sites have evolved. Sites like LinkedIn, AngelList, and Twitter are the more business casual of the job listings.

• LinkedIn:
  There are a total of 225 million LinkedIn users, both recruiters and jobseekers alike. Company LinkedIn accounts are just as important as candidate, so keep the company page updated with openings.
• AngelList: this company specializes in startups; so if you’re new to the entrepreneurial world, take a look.
• Twitter: For companies wanting to build a brand presence on social media, this is a good platform to use. Companies like UPS have a job opening specific Twitter handle. Twitter even features page optimization to make sure your openings generate search engine traffic.

6. Social Recruiting Tools
– Don’t be fooled, social recruiting tools are different than social networking sites. These tools will crawl professional profiles to find relevant skills and contact information, so recruiters don’t have to waste their time doing so.

SEO keyword optimization for the perfect job board, whether it is specialized or general, is a good place to start. Candidates can’t find the job postings if they can’t search for them. Pack those job openings with relevant SEO terms, and even place them in social listings and market them to fresh graduates. These are just a few tips to narrow your search and find your dream candidate. Finding the perfect match for the job openings in your company is like trying to find a soul mate for another person. It’s hard without a little help.

IN HONOR OF MOTHER’S DAY “MONTH”

“If you want something done, ask a busy person.”

Benjamin Franklin may not have been talking about working moms, but his maxim bears out in studies that show a big boost in effectiveness for women who are parents and also employed.

Despite today’s rosy, egalitarian views of shared parenting responsibilities, in practice, women still shoulder the lion’s share of household duties. Rather than driving mothers out of the workplace, this double duty has had some surprising effects: Women who parent
are excelling in new ways on the job.

When we estimate the dollar value of a mom’s contribution to the family, the number is astronomical. As the majority of women have children, is it possible that motherhood is honing women’s managerial skills, making them more effective leaders? You bet. Here’s how:

Planning Ninjas

Who can figure out how to get the kids fed, bathed, and dressed while ensuring they’re safe and happy — all in the space of a few hours? Mom can! When a little one depends on you for their every need, coordination and thinking ahead are essential. Juggling competing interests and multiple tasks provide
working moms with a crash course in bundling tasks and optimizing every minute.

Keen Eye for Identifying Priorities

The high demands of parental responsibilities have shown moms that they simply do not have time to do everything perfectly. They need to figure out what’s most important.

Extreme Flexibility

For all their best laid plans, working mothers are also highly adaptable. Raising a family is a 24/7 endeavor with constantly moving targets. When soccer practice runs long or your second-grader announces they need
40 cupcakes for class today (right as you pull into the school parking lot), Mom’Empathy is practically a reflex for moms. Supporting the emotional growth and development of a child isn’t unlike encouraging a team to succeed while holding them accountable when they don’t.

Delegating Responsibility

We’ve all heard the clichè about the stubborn guy who refuses to stop and ask for directions. There’s a reason that story doesn’t include a working mom. While men may be culturally programmed to view accepting limitations as a sign of weakness, working moms understand that it’s an absolute strength for the good of the team.

Many moms realize they cannot be
in two places at once, and embrace the idea their work/life balance is rooted in effectively divvying out responsibilities.

There’s a simple reality: Raising a human is incredibly challenging. Oftentimes stressful. But deeply rewarding.

Actress, writer, producer and mom Tina Fey nails it: “I think every working mom probably feels the same thing: You go through big chunks of time where you’re just thinking, ‘This is impossible — oh, this is impossible.’ And then you just keep going and keep going, and you sort of do the impossible.”

And isn’t a woman who does the impossible someone any employer would be happy to have?