When people think of Human Resources and their role within an organisation, recruitment is often one of the first tasks to come to mind. Attracting top quality people to a business is one of the areas often given to the HR department to carry out. Because HR is essentially looking after the biggest asset of any organisation; the workforce, it makes sense that they are involved in how and who they attract as future employees.
The first stage of any recruitment drive is to understand your current workforce; is it able to cope with the growth you have planned for your business? Where are the gaps that you need to plug? What skills sets are you lacking and what do you expect from future employees? What budget do you have set aside for new employees? Will there be any additional incentives other than salary?
Once you have answered these questions you will understand what you need, so the next step is to try and attract the right candidates. You could go through a recruitment agency who will select and filter candidates for you, but sometimes this can be an expensive process. You could lodge adverts on online jobs boards and job sites, or even in print (I think some people still read newspapers…!), but you have to make sure that the advert specifies the skills and the type of person needed for the role.
Thinking this through led me to the conclusion that the ‘traditional’ methods of recruiting staff can seem fairly run of the mill and well, boring. As a result, I was inspired to research some of the most cost effective, interesting and innovative ways to attract potential ‘stars’ to apply for roles. Here’s what caught my eye – I’m hoping to use some of these strategies in the future:
Social Media – Most companies now have a whole raft of social networks and social media in place so make sure this is utilised. If you have people following you on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn etc, then the chances are they are interested in what you are doing. Use these platforms to let them know that you’re hiring and how they can apply. Make sure your website is an exciting place for a potential employee to visit and make it clear that if they want to come and work for you, to get in touch. Having a ‘bank’ of interested candidates can be really useful, even if you’re not hiring.
Who do your employees know? – You may work in an industry where your employees are out in the field or networking with similar organisations. Make your current employees aware that you are looking for top quality candidates to join the business. One company I read about gave all of their employees a business card which read: ‘We’re hiring and I think you would make a great addition to our team’. Details of how to get in touch with the recruiting manager were on the reverse and these were handed out to people that had a spark or something extra special about them.
Guerrilla Campaigns – We’ve all seen adverts on the TV featuring flash mobs and how easily some You Tube videos go viral, so why not use this tactic when recruiting for staff? Often guerrilla campaigns are used to promote a product, but why not see your business as the product and use the campaign to attract people?
Competition Recruitment – If you are looking for specifically qualified technical employees, competition recruitment could be the way forward. Atlassian, an Australian technology firm, used a bus painted up with the slogan ‘We’re coming to steal your geeks!’ which was then driven around major cities in Europe. Their goal was to hire 15 new developers in 15 days and relocate them to Australia. As a result of this campaign, Atlassian won an award.
These examples go to show that recruitment need not be boring and as a result your company could attract a more dynamic, creative and interested candidate to apply for a role.
The next stage is selection and interviewing, but that’s a whole different story…..
