Recruiter Spam & InMauls!

What will it take to stop recruiter spam? 😱

It was 2015 when Steve Levy first coined the term InMaul, (AKA LinkedIn recruiter spam) and 2016 when Allison Kruse created the #FightSpam group, yet here we are in 2022 still having the same conversation.

Enough!

Last week, I was invited by the exclamation-mark-loving Anita Filip to a call because, ‘thanks to our wonderful Director, Julie Montgomery, our Talent Advisory team has your book in hand and we are adopting a book club.’ 💜

I’d have answered Anita’s email anyway but she sensibly caught my attention with a dog pic! 👏

On the call I discovered that this was Aviatrix’s first ever book club and that they’d selected mine as the first! 😍 When I wrote The Robot-Proof Recruiter, I did not know that things like this would happen! 🤯 🥰

And as I donated my royalties to Hope for Justice, who aim to end modern-day slavery impacting over 40 million people globally, it’s extra special.

But I digress…

“Is recruiter spam really still a problem?”

Truthfully, Julie asked me in a far more polite fashion but I still replied, ‘Hell yeah!’

Sadly.

And then I opened LinkedIn and saw Stephen Guined’s post about recruiter spam!

It starts, ‘Dear Recruiters, please do the following before I lose my mind’

Really? Do we have to make people feel so fed up? Is it really that hard to…

Identity

Your name is your identity. And I’d be willing to put money on the fact that it irks you when people misspell yours, or alter it without permission. Or worse, don’t bother even using it. Hi, or Hello, is worse in my book. It’s lazy. It sets a poor first impression.

Take a moment before you hit send and check the spelling! Every time I receive Katerina, Kristina, Kat and so on, I am ready to delete your message unread. Though I know that a small percentage of senders may have difficulties reading and spelling, it’s my identity.

It matters.

Be curious

If you want to get someone’s attention in this market, let them know that you have done your research. Find out something about them that is not here on LinkedIn, that’ll really make them sit up and listen! Like Anita did with the dog pic… that is not evident on LinkedIn! 👏

Build trust with this curiosity and your other super human skills. It may even help you get that referral, if the recipient isn’t right for this one.

Be contactable

As Stephen mentions, why are you making it so hard? Why waste each other’s time? Add your number! So you may not be able to answer when they call but imagine the hours of to-ing and fro-ing you’ll save and how impressed the candidate will be.

And to any company that doesn’t advertise salaries and then expects applicants to complete tedious assessments, before they can even have a call to discover the basics, STOP IT!!!! 🚩

But if you don’t think any of this matters, and if the comments on RecruitingHell don’t inspire you to up your game and stop InMauling candidates, that’s ok.

Candidates have choice and the recipient will pick another recruiter to talk to.

#BeHuman

Stephen acknowledges those who make the effort, “For all the recruiters that treat people like humans and have a genuine interest in getting to know them, THANK YOU!” 👏

You’ll find The Robot-Proof Recruiter is a great place to start if you are looking for some human-first recruiting direction! It’s full of tips and advice from me and your industry peers