Recruiting Solutions

Whitepaper

The Job-Seeking Status of the Fully-Employed

December 2010
By Lou Adler

Key Survey Findings

1. Only 18% of employed professionals are active candidates, but a further 60% are open to discussing opportunities Only 18% of the fully-employed professional workforce are now actively looking and applying to a companys job postings. Another 44% are open to considering a new position, but need to be proactively contacted by a recruiter to discuss career opportunities. An additional 16% indicated that while theyre not actively looking, they are reaching out to close associates to see if anything is available. Only 22% of respondents categorized themselves as Super Passive, i.e. not open to learning about new career opportunities. 2. The Early-Bird Sourcing Strategy wins Finding candidates as soon as they enter the job market can improve overall candidate quality. This is referred to as an Early-Bird Sourcing Strategy and requires a combination of search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) techniques to be effective. 3. Traditional job postings only expose your opportunities to 23% of the viable candidate pool Even with SEO and SEM techniques, 77% of fully-employed professionals who will consider opportunities Tiptoers and Explorers will not be found using the static job board-based sourcing programs still used by many companies today. 4. The active pool skews toward more junior, less tenured professionals The 18% of fully-employed people who are either actively or semiactively looking for a new job tend to be those with less tenure (2-3 years on the job) and at a more junior level (staff and managers) in the organization. This suggests that the active candidate pool is comprised of a higher proportion of less seasoned people who are not likely to stay and grow with the same organization. 5. Your next Director of Operations probably isnt actively looking By contrast, only 13% of directors and executives indicated they are actively or semi-actively looking for a new position vs. 18% of managers and 20% of individual contributors. An active candidate sourcing program should therefore play a very minor role in recruiting senior management.

Executive Summary
This whitepaper summarizes the results of a survey conducted in September 2010 by the Adler Group and LinkedIns Recruitment Insights team. The objective was to better understand the job-seeking behavior of professionals in the U.S., to determine how active they are in seeking new employment and what sources they use to nd opportunities. Over 5,500 people responded, covering the gamut from individual contributors to senior executives. Of these, 4,543 categorized themselves as fully-employed, but not selfemployed. Since this is the group most companies want to target for hiring purposes, we focused on these fully-employed respondents to understand their mood about the economy, their current level of job satisfaction, and the best means to source, recruit and hire them. Our emphasis throughout is on the need for recruiting organizations to better understand when, why and how the best talent looks for new jobs, and the factors that most in uence their nal decision. This understanding will inform how companies go about hiring top talent on a more consistent basis.

6. Those who arent looking may not be as satis ed as you think Its no surprise that theres a strong correlation between job satisfaction and job seeking. What is more interesting is the extent to which neutrality is the order of the day, even among those not actively looking for a job but open to the right opportunity. Tracking changes in employee satisfaction could represent a useful means to predict changes in voluntary turnover.

The Job-Seeking Status of the Fully-Employed

The following graph provides a high-level look at the job-seeking behavior of the 4,543 fully-employed people who participated in the survey. Some de nitions are in order as we examine the data and the implications.

Figure 1 Job-Seeking Status of Fully-Employed

4,543 Respondents

For the purposes of this survey, we wanted to effectively compare the differences between active and passive candidates, resulting in the following ve categories featured in gure 1. In addition, survey participants had to assign themselves to pre-de ned levels of employment (fully-employed, self-employed, part-time, unemployed, etc.), as well as provide their titles, functions, and organizational level (from individual contributor to CEO). Much of the survey analysis is based on these more detailed categorizations. By itself gure 1 is very revealing. It states that among the fully-employed (largely professional, exempt employees), only 18% are actively looking for a new job (the Very Active and Semi-Active categories). (Note: this 18% compares to 24% for all survey respondents, fully-employed or otherwise.) Another 16% are thinking about looking for other positions, but only reaching out to former close associates to do this. These are the Tiptoers. 66% of the fully-employed are not looking at all, but two-thirds of this passive group called Explorers would be open to talking with a recruiter about a potential career opportunity. The remaining third of those not looking are Super Passive and not interested in considering anything at this time. Based on this, its easy to conclude that with only 18% of the fullyemployed professional workforce likely to nd and apply to a companys job posting, sourcing programs should shift away from this active candidate pool, especially since many companies target the same group of people. While there might be a few top performers in this 18% Active candidate group, allocating major resources here is likely to be wasted effort. With 60% of the fully-employed professional workforce either Tiptoers or Explorers, most corporate recruiting departments need to focus on ways to proactively in uence and convert these harder-to reach candidates.

Very Active Super Passive

22%

8% 10%

Semi-Active

16% 44%

Tiptoer

Explorer

Job-seeking Status Category De nitions

Very Active: actively looking for a new job and currently sharing their resume. Semi-Active: casually looking for a new job 2-3 times per week and beginning to test the market. Tiptoer: thinking about changing jobs and have reached out to close associates, but are not actively looking. Explorer: not looking for a new job, but would discuss an opportunity with a recruiter if the job appeared meaningful. Super Passive: completely happy in their current job and not interested in discussing new career opportunities.

Reviewing the Survey from a Sourcing Strategy Perspective

For many organizations, this recommended focus on more passive Tiptoers and Explorers will require a signi cant shift in sourcing approach. This is where the Early-Bird Sourcing Strategy comes into play. As youll discover, tying this concept with the survey insights will allow you to quickly understand how changes in a companys sourcing strategy can impact quality of hire, cost per hire and time to ll. Figure 2 provides an overview of the Early-Bird Sourcing concept. At its core, its based on how top achievers change their job-hunting status as a function of job satisfaction. The rapid increase and plateauing, as shown by the High Achiever Pattern curve, re ects the traditional jump in job satisfaction when rst starting a good job, and a attening if the rate of growth and impact declines.

Active Candidates Further De ned

Searchers are those who have just entered into an active job-seeking phase. Typically these people will use Google, Bing or a job aggregator to nd a position. Generally speaking, the ads that are easiest to nd get selected rst. This is why leveraging talent communities in combination with search engine optimization is an important sourcing strategy. Networkers are those who have decided to broaden their reach beyond their immediate circle of close associates. Frequently these are former co-workers and their related referrals. Traditional employee referral programs represent much of this sourcing activity. Hunters and Posters are those who spend signi cant time on job boards and company career sites applying to many jobs and posting their resumes in the hope theyre found. Generally speaking, the best of the hunters and posters get picked up very quickly, at the outset of their job hunt.

Figure 2 Change in Growth, Impact, and Satisfaction Over Time

Semi-Active
44% 16% 18%

Very Active
Hunters & Posters

Growth & Impact

Explorers

Tiptoers

Searchers

Networkers

High Achiever Pattern

22%

Diminishing Job Returns

Super Passives

Time
In the early phases of a job assuming its a good one growth and satisfaction are extremely high, as shown on the far left of the graph. If growth doesnt continue at the same rate, satisfaction typically declines as shown by the attening of the curve. At the point of diminishing job returns, most people begin to question the quality of their current position in comparison to what else is available. This in turn determines the persons job seeking behavior. When the economy is weak, the point of diminishing returns moves to the right, and when its strong it moves to the left. Professionals generally value their existing position more in comparison to whats available when the economy is suspect. During periods of economic growth or recovery, these same jobs are less desirable. The result: an increase in voluntary turnover. As well discuss later, monitoring employee job satisfaction gives a good early indication of an imminent potential surge in turnover at your organization. The graph superimposes the survey data on the basic job-seeking classi cations. For example, the Super Passives are shown on the far left with 22% of the fully-employed categorizing themselves as fully satis ed, and not willing to even discuss career opportunities with a recruiter. The best companies to work for typically get it right in continuing to offer their employees opportunity to grow and increase their impact. They are rewarded by keeping their employees in this Super Passive and highly satis ed state over time. The far right represents the semi-active and very active candidate pools, whose job satisfaction has plateaued to the point where they are more aggressively seeking other employment. For survey purposes we created two groups Very Actives and Semi-Actives. In order to develop targeted sourcing programs, we further divide these groups into three sub-groups, each based on the approach they use to nd new positions. These subgroups Searchers, Networkers, and Hunters and Posters are described to the left of gure 2. The term Early-Bird Sourcing refers to the idea of proactively nding candidates before they enter the job-hunting market. Alternatively, if they have entered, you want them to nd your job opportunities before they nd someone elses by using search engine marketing and search engine optimization techniques. Finding people rst is a signi cant competitive advantage. Not only do you have a better chance to hire them, but the extra time allows for more due diligence and the chance to position your job as a better career move. Done properly this will minimize the need to play catch-up and/or pay unnecessary salary premiums. Caution is urged though, since the active groups represent only 18% of the fully-employed exempt (professional) job categories. Recall that 60% of the fully-employed professional market Tiptoers and Explorers will not be found using the typical posting-based sourcing programs used by most companies today. Given that only 22% of the market is Super Passive, this 60% represents a full 73% of all those who are open to job opportunities, from Explorers through Actives.
3

One way to determine if your sourcing programs are working effectively is to start asking candidates how long theyve been looking for a new position. The idea is to drive this to as close to Day 1 as possible for active candidates; and, of course, long before Day 1 for passive candidates.

Job-seeking Status by Tenure

The job-seeking behavior of fully-employed professionals is affected by the employees tenure with the organization. Figure 3 compares the individuals job-seeking status with their current length of employment. Again, this group only consists of those who categorized themselves as fully-employed and excludes the self-employed. The percentages shown re ect the differences in tenure by job-seeking category. For example, in the Very Active group, 18% have less than one year with their current employer, 22% have between 1-2 years with their current employer, and so on.

Figure 3

Job-seeking Status by Tenure

<1 yr 1-2 yrs 3-5 yrs 6-10 yrs >11 yrs

0%

5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50% 55% 60% 65% 70% 75% 80% 85% 90% 95% 100%

Very Active

18%

22%

29%

15%

16%

Semi-Active

11%

25%

37%

14%

13%

Tiptoer

6%

14%

32%

24%

24%

Explorer

10%

14%

28%

21%

27%

Super Passive

16%

12%

20%

18%

34%

Total

12%

15%

28%

20%

26%

From the data it appears that most Actives have between one and ve years of experience, as shown in the shaded areas. After ve years of employment, voluntary turnover tends to drop dramatically. One can assume that the peak of turnover is in the 2-3 year range, especially in the current economy. The scarcity of outside opportunities puts a lid on normal job-seeking behavior, with a job in the hand worth two on the board. Interestingly, those with less than one year at their company were signi cantly less active than those with more tenure. The likely reason is that newly hired people are willing to stay with a new job for a minimum period of time, even if it isnt the right t. This behavior is exacerbated by the current slow economy. The inference for developing sourcing strategies is not insigni cant. Its apparent that the active candidate market is comprised of people who have much more turnover than average. As a result, over-reliance on active candidates as your primary source of hires will lead you to recruit professional and managerial staff who are less likely to stay with your organization for the long term. Not only is the active pool comparatively small, but transient, and less likely to raise your organizations talent bar.

Compounding the problem is that most of the active candidates accepting your offers do so for economic reasons, with little understanding of the real job requirements. This is the root cause of low job satisfaction and voluntary turnover. Its attributed to using sourcing, recruiting and screening tactics that are at odds with the objective of hiring top talent for long-term career reasons. Of course, in the current economic environment this turnover point needs to be tempered somewhat. There are certainly more top people in the market today as a result of organizational restructuring and a global repositioning of the workforce. However, nding these people using active candidate sourcing means is likely to be less reliable than a strategy built on hiring top talent using more proactive techniques targeting Tiptoers and Explorers.

The Impact of Organizational Position on Job-Seeking Status

From a long term hiring standpoint, especially for critical positions, a strategy built on hiring Tiptoers (those networking with former close associates) and Explorers (those open to discuss career moves with a recruiter) makes most sense. Much of this involves aggressive networking, more creative advertising, and intense direct marketing. This type of strategy is even more important for upper level positions, as illustrated in gure 4. The percentages re ect the signi cant differences in job-hunting status by position level.

Figure 4

Job-seeking Behavior by Organizational Level

Director to CEO Manager

Staff

Total

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

5.8%

8.3%

9.0%

8.4%

Very Active

7.3%

9.7%

11.1%

10.3%

Semi-Active

12.5%

17.1%

16.2%

15.8%

Tiptoer

46.1%

44.9%

42.5%

43.5%

Explorer

28.3%

20.0%

21.1%

22.0%

Super Passive

Weve already addressed the limitations youll encounter by focusing your sourcing efforts on active candidates. For more senior positions, the active candidate market is even less inviting, with only 13% of those who classi ed themselves as Directors or more senior executives considering themselves Very Active or Semi-Active in the current job market. This compares to 18% of managers who categorize themselves this way, and 20% of staff people. To nd and hire more senior level people, its essential that companies use techniques to target Tiptoers and Explores. From an organization level perspective, directors and senior executives are much less actively looking than the individual contributors and managers in their companies. Since there are fewer senior manager positions currently available, this is not an unexpected result. Regardless, if a company wants to hire some of the best of these senior managers, posting an ad and hoping a strong person nds it is unlikely to result in success.

Using Employee Satisfaction as a Predictor of Voluntary Turnover

One series of survey questions asked people to evaluate their current level of job satisfaction on a 1-10 scale. Their answers were grouped into three broad categories Quite Dissatis ed, Quite Satis ed, and Neither/Nor. This information was then cross-tabulated with how the respondents categorized themselves from a job-seeking behavior standpoint. The results of this analysis are shown below.

Figure 5

Job-seeking Behavior Compared to Satisfaction Level

Quite Dissatis ed Neither/Nor Quite Satis ed

Very Active
15% 19%

36% 49%

Semi-active

65% 16% 16% 67% 17%

Tiptoer

Explorer

2% 43% 55%

Super Passive

0% 11% 89%

As expected, there is a clear correlation between current job satisfaction and whether the person is looking or not, but there are a couple of secondary insights worth sharing. First, out-and-out dissatisfaction isnt a pre-requisite for job-seeking; people are more likely to feel neutral toward their current position. Second, note the number of Explorers who describe their feelings toward their current job as neutral. As recruiters contact these people, they need to determine how satis ed they are with their current positions and what it would take to entice them to move. There may not be a large loyalty hurdle to overcome; its more a matter of landing on the right positioning for the role. The inference is clear: track your current employee satisfaction levels, watch carefully for early indicators of declines in job satisfaction for better predicting voluntary turnover, and make sure your recruiters ask about job satisfaction when talking with candidates. This will all be extremely important information in considering how to best position your job.

Conclusions
The high-achiever growth and impact graph presented earlier provides a convenient means to summarize the results of this survey. Key survey ndings have been incorporated in gure 6.

Figure 6 Change in Growth, Impact, and Satisfaction Over Time

Sweet Spot for Best Talent
55% 17% 16% 15%

Growth & Impact

Explorers
44% 16%

Tiptoers

Semi-Actives
10%

Networkers
8%

Hunters & Posters

Career Move

Better Job

Good Job

Very Active - Lateral

High Achiever Pattern

Diminishing Job Returns

Methodology
In September 2010 the Adler Group and LinkedIn conducted an online survey among members of the LinkedIn network to better understand their attitudes to job seeking and to their current employment situation. The survey attracted 5,525 respondents, of whom 4,543 categorized themselves as fully-employed (as opposed to selfemployed, part-time or unemployed). The survey sample was balanced for active and less active LinkedIn members to be representative of LinkedIns overall membership. Results were weighted to represent the actual mix of senior and junior professionals on LinkedIn.

22%

Super Passives

89%

X% Y%

% Fully-employed % Quite Satis ed

Time
The blue circles represent the percent of fully-employed people who categorized themselves into the job-seeking category shown. For purposes of this whitepaper, Networkers and Hunters and Posters were put into the Very Active Group. The green boxes represent the percent of people in each job-seeking group who categorized themselves as Quite Satis ed with their current positions. The data summarized in this report covers the responses of only those people who categorized themselves as fully-employed (4,543). The overarching conclusion of this study is that only 18% of the fullyemployed professional workforce in North America would categorize themselves as actively looking for a new position. While there are some top people in this active group, on a pure numbers basis there are far fewer of them than in the 60% (Tiptoers and Explorers) who said that would be open to explore a position if directly contacted by a recruiter or if a former associate led them to a potential opportunity. The evidence also shows that those who have more tenure or play a more senior role at their company are even less likely to be actively looking. From a strategy standpoint, this suggests that companies need to do a better job of aligning resources by job seeker segment. This requires a signi cant shift in focus, primarily increasing emphasis on the Tiptoer and Explorer jobseeking categories. This is essential for any organization that needs to hire more talented people for professional and managerial positions. Another major conclusion of this survey is that job satisfaction is worth exploring in conversations with candidates, as well as worth monitoring more proactively at your organization as a means to predict and stem voluntary turnover. It is quite evident that highly satis ed employees are far less likely to voluntarily leave their current positions even if directly contacted by an outside recruiter. Gallup and others have demonstrated this point in numerous studies, even demonstrating the nancial impact of employee satisfaction on ROI. This suggests that in the current environment its not job dissatisfaction that is driving the fully-employed professional worker to seek alternative employment. The objective of this whitepaper was to provide recruiting leaders and company executives a better means to understand the market for top talent. It is clear that the fully-employed, professional worker has a different approach to looking for work and comparing job opportunities. This is ultimately driven by personal job satisfaction, the number of comparable opportunities available and overall business and economic conditions. All of this needs to be considered from a company perspective when developing sourcing and recruiting strategies, developing critical skill sets in your recruiting organization, implementing interviewing and screening tools, and even selecting the type of technology to use in managing your data.

About the author

Lou Adler is the CEO and founder of The Adler Group (www.adlerconcepts.com), a training, consulting and search rm helping companies implement Performance-based HiringSM. He is the Amazon best-seller author of Hire With Your Head (John Wiley & Sons, 3rd Edition, 2007) and the NightingaleConant audio program Talent Rules! Using Performance-based Hiring to Hire Top Talent (2007).

About LinkedIn
LinkedIn is an Internet platform company focused on connecting the worlds professionals. The LinkedIn website launched in 2003 and is the worlds largest professional network with more than 85 million members, representing every country and executives from every Fortune 500 company. Over two-thirds of the Fortune 100 now use LinkedIn Recruiting Solutions to nd, contact and hire great talent for their organizations. For more information, go to http://talent.linkedin.com.

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