The Hard Truth About Recruiter Spam by @MatthewJLeBlanc

There is a movement afoot by some in the recruiting and sourcing world to help find a solution to the spamming that goes on within our function. Believe me – they have my support – if I had one dollar for every awful recruiter spam message that has hit my mailbox over the years I’d be retired by now. For those that might not think the problem is real search recruiter spam online.

Unfortunately, the recruiter spam problem will not be going away anytime soon for the following reasons:

Recruiting vendors that allow mass communication seem to be making money hand over fist.

Filling up a clip-board and sending out mass messages is all many of the newer recruiters / sourcers have ever known and some have had a lot of success with it.

Many recruiters and sourcers are overwhelmed and sending out mass emails has become the new posting and praying. Do you think an overworked and underappreciated recruiter is worried if he accidently pings someone who is not a perfect fit when his employer is putting pressure to deliver?

Many recruiters have received zero initial and / or ongoing training and they take the easiest path to contacting candidates.

Some recruiters have zero interest in expanding their skillset and filling up a clipboard is easy to do.

If someone doesn’t realize they have a problem they will never try to fix it. This might be the biggest issue of all – I doubt many who constantly spam realize the harm they are doing by continuing to spam.

Although some solutions could provide an easy fix (think the power of the NOT operator, actually looking at profiles and resumes) it will take much, much more to resolve an issue that will continue to harm our profession for years to come.

What say you – how would you solve the recruiter spam problem?