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In our search for my new assistant, we quickly realized that conventional methods and job descriptions weren’t attracting the right types of candidates. We could attract people who had the qualifications, but it was difficult to gauge whether or not their values and principles align with ours. Finding candidates with the right mind-set – who are happy, healthy and create their own reality – is extremely important to us.

I recently read an article in The Globe and Mail that made me realize our company is not the only one that does this. It noted that in a recent survey, 92 percent of respondents from thousands of companies choose candidates based on mind-set rather than skill set. Our company, along with thousands of others, wants candidates who fit well within the company culture. While we can teach a person new skills, we can’t change their personality or values.

LinkedIn just rolled out an exciting new feature that makes it even easier to reach qualified candidates automatically. Members who view jobs on LinkedIn will now receive targeted job recommendations automatically via email. Powered by LinkedIn’s ‘Jobs You May Be Interested In’ system, the emails include jobs that are personalized for each recipient based on his or her professional profile.

I predict that the market is finally heating up. Of course, I’ve been wrong for the past few years, so you might want to take the next few ideas on how to get ready for 2011 with a grain of salt. Or not.

The market for top talent is definitely heating up and you need to take some serious steps to stay on top of your company’s recruiting activities. In five informal surveys I’ve done in the last 15 days, three out four recruiters (sample of 1000) suggest that for the professional worker, 2011 will represent the tipping for significant job growth, with 2012 being a banner year. At last.

Reaching passive candidates with job postings got much easier today with the announcement of LinkedIn Jobs for You Ads, a tool that intelligently distributes jobs to specific professional audiences across the web.

For the first time, companies can select the types of candidates they need most and distribute jobs exclusively to those professionals based on their LinkedIn profiles. LinkedIn’s job matching technology automatically shows the most relevant jobs for each and every viewer based on his or her professional experience. This relevancy leads to engagement and a click-though rate up to four times higher than the industry standard.