“I need to hire a couple field people, and neither I nor my field supervisor have time to focus on recruiting. What do you suggest?”
This question comes from a business owner in the Hudson Valley, who has seen some significant sales growth this year. With growth in business comes the need for more employees to do the work. And like many of us, this business owner has gotten caught in the trap of doing so much work, there’s not enough time left to work on the business.
Here are a few suggestions. Assign recruiting to someone in the company. Be on the lookout all the time for good people. Build your rolodex of people you want to keep track of. Periodically advertise to test the market. Have a list of hiring needs for the upcoming year.
Start by assigning someone in the company the job of recruiting. If you don’t have anyone with a recruiting background, which is quite possibly the case, you can always ask someone to learn about recruiting. Check to see if anyone on your staff has had any previous experience with recruiting, or if anyone would like to learn about recruiting.
Ideally, your recruiter will be in an office based position. A lot of the task will be about keeping track of every one’s hiring requests, job candidates and interviews. All of that is more easily done by someone with constant access to the computer, fax, phone and files. Once you have chosen your candidate, get that person some training. Get a book, sign up for a course. Learn about searching, interviewing, job ads, and on-boarding new staff.
Here are some questions your recruiter can ask internally, to get organized. What positions need to be filled in the upcoming year, and what’s the timing for each? Is there a job description written to go along with each request? How about a salary range? Is there an ad that’s been used before, and did it work? Where did the last candidate come from? What is the process to get approval to start a search – and is that different for replacements vs. new additions to staff?
Ask your recruiter to set up a system to feed your company’s rolodex of potential job candidates. Put a notice on your website that your company is always looking for good people. Periodically post ads on job boards. Contact colleges, technical schools, and even high schools for entry level candidates.
Build a spider web of connections. Tell people what your company does, what are the attributes of a good employee for your firm. Get to know individuals in your industry who come in contact with lots of people. Ask everyone to let you know when they come across high quality candidates.
Think like you’re always hiring. Be on the lookout everywhere you go. It’s a mindset, and you want to teach everyone in your company to think that way. Ask your employees to feed your recruiter names of people they think would be outstanding. Remind employees that the best way to have great co-workers is to always be on the lookout for them.
Keep your eyes peeled for people who have skills your company needs. Notice when people are good at what they do. Don’t worry that you don’t have a job opening. When you find someone good, talk to them about where they’re going professionally – heart to heart. If you still like the candidate, ask them to keep in touch with your firm. Get their email address, so your recruiter can periodically send them notices about what your company is up to. Stay in touch, so that when your company needs talent, you already know where to find it.
Periodically post ads to find out what kind of talent is out in the market, especially for key sales and operations positions. Job boards range in price, from Craig’s List to Monster and Hot Jobs, to name a few. One advantage of using online job boards is that you’re attracting people who are already at least a little computer literate – which is a requirement for most jobs today.
Finally, ask your recruiter to meet with you monthly to review the list of hiring requests. Look at needs by quarter. Check to see if there are any internal candidates, ready for promotion, or who could get ready with training. Any jobs that need to be filled in the next quarter are top priority. Anything further out, check the rolodex of candidates first then start advertising. Ask your recruiter to line up ? dozen top quality candidates. Keep in mind that it can take 3 – 6 months to find a top candidate.
Looking for a good book? Try, TKO Hiring!: Ten Knockout Strategies for Recruiting, Interviewing and Hiring Great People , by Dave Anderson.
