Even if your company is fully staffed now you must consider how to ensure you have the human capital to capitalize on the long-awaited economic upturn. Even though unemployment is still high, it will change soon as the economy improves. The available labor pool will appear to shrink, and the time and effort needed to fill positions will increase when companies plan to expand.
To continuously have a top performing staff you must continually recruit. You can’t wait until someone leaves, you are ready to terminate an employee, or you want to add an employee to begin focusing on recruiting again. It must again be part of an everyday process and it requires a conscious effort to continually look for capable, motivated people.
The key to continuous recruiting is keeping your needs clearly in focus. Know what you need, take the time to examine your current and future personnel needs, just as you would monitor customer acquisition and retention. Account for predicted growth and the inevitable attrition that occurs. Don’t just look at the number of people needed. Look at the skill and experience level needed for the position. Ensuring you fully understand what you are looking for, by position, makes your recruiting efforts easier and certainly more effective.
Once you know what you need, you can begin searching for those individuals. Figure out where the individuals you would want to hire are currently working. You don’t plan on finding enough people out of work or just using traditional methods such as want ads. You’ll have to identify and attract people who are employed. Our experience has shown that organizations, in which every manager consciously looks for talented employees who fit the jobs needed, have the applicant flow needed to keep positions filled with top performers.
Actively recruiting by management isn’t the only way. Innovative recruiting techniques - beyond typical methods such as newspaper ads, internet job postings, and job fairs or campus recruiting - pay dividends.
For example, you can volunteer to speak to groups about your industry, especially to groups with potential applicants. Don’t forget to mention your need for employees and provide an easy way for an applicant to contact you. Someone in the audience may refer a friend or family member.
Develop a relationship with a high school or community college. Provide career information, speak to classes, and possibly offer internships or summer jobs. Use this as a way to get top job prospects before they start looking.
Community involvement is a great way to recruit. Many communities have groups who need assistance and help. For example, assisting an organization with members recently immigrated to the U.S. cannot only help the organization, but can open doors to that applicant pool. Many people, especially those new to this country, are uncomfortable about aggressively pursuing a job because of their culture. Be sensitive, learn their culture, and make it easy.
With today’s large number of bilingual workers and applicants, it is critical to make communication easier. You may translate your recruiting information into Spanish to get more impact in Spanish-speaking communities. If your recruiting materials are culturally sensitive, you will attract more candidates.
When the business climate improves, candidates will again be choosey and that demands that we adapt our hiring to a more pro-active approach of recruiting. We can not be slow, ineffective, or impersonal in our contact with candidates if we are to get the best.
It is important to make it easy for recruited applicants to move through the employment process. They require encouragement and persuasion since many are gainfully employed and may be uneasy about changing jobs. However, we must still follow an employment process that ensures we make good hiring decisions.
Today, it is even more important for a company not to make a hiring mistake. If, in your hurry to hire, you don’t do a proper background check, you may later find yourself and the company liable for an undiscovered problem, such as a felony conviction for a violent crime.
When times are difficult it is more important than ever that we realize the importance of a stable and talented workforce. Making staffing acquisition and retention a focus similar to customer acquisition and retention will pay dividends. Without staff, we cannot serve our customers or reach our organizational goals.
©2009 Wayne Outlaw
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