Season 4, Episode 2:

Still practicing the old
‘post and pray’ technique?

In this week’s episode, Qualigence International CEO Steve Lowisz interviewed Recruiting Consultant, Robin Wells and Sales Consultant, Ian Davidson, on the importance of creating new techniques to attract candidates instead of relying on the old-fashioned “post and pray” method.

It was 25 years ago when Steve started his career in recruiting, and back then recruiters were known to place a newspaper ad and pray that they would get some response (hence the term “post and pray”).

Now, let’s fast forward to the internet age, when recruiters started using job boards like Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com to do the same thing, except electronically. Today, the “post and pray” method has spilled over into social media.

For example, Steve’s Twitter feed was recently flooded with job postings by two recruiters. Unfortunately, the “post and pray” technique hasn’t evolved, it’s just found its way onto a new platform.

Does post and pray work?

Especially with larger companies, Ian states that recruiters have so much on their plate that they end up using the “post and pray” method as a rushed solution to alleviate some of their workload.

Even though posting jobs online is quick and easy, is it efficient? What happens once people start applying to these positions?

The “post and pray” hiring strategy creates an endless cycle of work for recruiters. Unqualified candidates apply for positions for the same reason the recruiter posted it on a job board or social media – it’s quick and easy.

Now, the recruiter must put time aside to filter through their inbox and hope that there is a candidate in the mix that qualifies for the job. This process ends up taking more time away from the recruiter, time that could have been spent finding the right candidate from day one. Instead, the recruiter is left with hundreds of resume submissions from people who do not qualify for the position.

There is still hope

In this “post and pray” video, Robin and Ian offers some great advice, such as:

– Don’t rely on posting and praying alone – even if you feel you don’t have extra time. You’re already wasting your time in the future by doing this.

– Set the right expectation for the hiring managers to start with. Expectations should be set from start to finish.

“You can still find that diamond in the rough…” said Robin.