Originally posted by Charles Purdy on MonsterThinking Blog

If you’re in an HR or recruiting position, you likely interact with a lot of job seekers and employees, and  you may believe that you already know everything you need to know about their mindsets and attitudes.  After all, you’re in the people business.

Plus, you’re busy! You’ve got an inbox full of resumes and a calendar full of meetings and interviews, and you think you’re making things easier by applying an unchanging checklist to the job seekers you have to sort through.

It’s time to think again. Preconceived notions can hurt you and your business, because they may be leading you to reject top talent before you can discover it.

At Monster, we talk to job seekers every day; like with #TChat, we know conversation counts.  Because, after all, that’s the ultimate goal of connecting.  And here are just a few of the commonly held recruiting notions that today’s worker – who, statistically speaking, is likely also a job seeker – want HR pros to know:

5 Job Search Myths and The New Recruiting Realities

MYTH #1: Currently employed candidates are preferable

You don’t still ignore “active” candidates in favor of “passive” ones, do you? The line between people who are actively looking for a career change and people who aren’t has blurred — Monster polls have found that a considerable majority of employed people would jump ship for the right opportunity. (As a side note, this makes employee engagement very important right now — what are you doing to keep your current employees engaged?)

MYTH #2: Gaps in employment make a candidate undesirable

Times have been tough, right? Great workers have been laid off and had a hard time finding new employment. Rejecting candidates for gaps in employment means you reject a lot of great talent out of hand. Look into “gaps,” and you’ll see that many candidates have been filling downtime with personal-development activities that make them better hires, not worse.

MYTH #3: It’s all about salary

This just isn’t true for today’s workers. It’s no longer about throwing money at great candidates — especially for younger workers, quality-of-life issues can trump monetary compensation. Want to make your company more attractive to talented people? Look into adopting flex-time and flex-space policies. Provide on-the-job learning opportunities (and make sure that all employees, even “entry-level” ones, are treated with respect and shown how they contribute to company success). And think about how your company can promote its green and social-good efforts — corporate responsibility is becoming more and more important to workers.

MYTH #4: “Overqualified” people are unacceptably risky hires

That “overqualified” worker has the expertise your company needs. Instead of rejecting him or her outright, find out why he or she wants to head in a new career direction. As with salary, many great candidates are now less interested in titles and more motivated by other concerns.

MYTH #5: Over 50 means over the hill

Now more than ever, age is just a number. People are living longer and putting retirement off for later — not only because they need income, but also because they want to stay engaged with their careers (or begin a new one). Like “overqualified” workers, Baby Boomers are a great untapped employment-market and expertise resource.

#TCHAT Questions (06.28.11)

What recruiting myths are you challenging? Have you uncovered any other outdated recruiting mindsets? What can HR do about it?  Tonight’s special #TChat Live! from SHRM 11 will focus on the current state of affairs with regard to talent management and HR leadership.

If you’re at SHRM 11 this week, stop by ARIA Resort & Casino’s Bluethorn Meeting Room #3 for our meet-up today. Food and drinks will be available. You don’t have to be in Vegas to follow the action. Search for hashtag #TChat on Twitter or your favorite Twitter client and join the conversation.

It’s sure to be a lively discussion, so we hope you can join us at 8 PM ET/5 PM ET on Twitter for #TChat!

Q1: What does HR do? Is that different from what they’re supposed to do?

Q2: Why should HR be responsible for all talent management and recruiting? Why not?

Q3: What are the common misperceptions other departments have about HR and why?

Q4: What’s HR getting right in today’s world of work and business?

Q5: HR pros: What can employees do differently to better partner with HR?

Q6: What does the future of HR look like? Does it have one?

Visit www.talentculture.com for more great information on #TChat, as well as other great resources on careers and hiring.

Monster’s social media team supports #TChat’s mission of sharing “ideas to help your business and your career accelerate — the right people, the right ideas, at the right time.”

We’ll be joining the conversation this Tuesday night as co-hosts with Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman from 8-9 p.m. (Eastern) via @MonsterCareers and @Monster_Works.