As we approach St. Patrick’s Day, luck is in the air, but not if you are recruiting highly-skilled professionals. It’s harder than ever to find good, qualified people. That is, unless you subscribe to the phrase, luck favors the prepared.
Recruiting is all about being prepared. Especially in today’s competitive recruiting environment. The day you have an open requisition is a day too late in most cases. This is why cycle times for hiring continue to increase. And you can follow all the rainbows you want, but there’s probably not a pot of gold, or the perfect candidate.
So in honor of St. Patrick’s Day (and our current tight labor market), here are a few tips to help you feel like the luck of the Irish is on your side when recruiting.
Green with Envy
Want to make your competitors green with envy? Establish a recruiting program that they fear. Don’t take that too literally, but if you believe, as I do, that basically everyone is a passive job seeker, then you need to build a program that your competitors fear will lure their employees away. This means networking with them and their peers, being a company they are routinely searching (maybe even on their work computers) and being known in your industry as a great place to work.
Be Green
How about being known for providing equal access to all candidates or having an eco-friendly environment? A good diversity program and hiring practices is a must today. Not only because it’s the right thing to do, but because many candidates today are looking at the whole company and what you stand for. They want to know they are going to a company that cares, that is doing good work and is environmentally friendly. If your bosses think this is just fluff, remind them that you need every advantage you can get when recruiting good candidates.
The Pot O’Gold
The real pot of gold is a candidate pool that is ready to go when you need them (or more to the point, before you need them). Recruiting good candidates can be compared to panning for gold. First, you have to know where to look, then it takes a lot of time to filter through to separate the gold from the rest. This is where you have to look at your resources and honestly assess if you have the knowledge and the staff to cover both sourcing and recruiting, for example. It’s also a matter of knowing where to look and how to engage skilled resources who are passive candidates who are probably not looking for a job.
Enjoy St. Paddy’s day, but remember that there’s no such thing as luck in recruiting. Good talent acquisition managers make their own luck. Great talent acquisition managers call a staffing company.
This blog was written by Matt Rivera. Matt serves as Vice President, Marketing and Communications and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of Yoh’s marketing and brand communications. Matt holds a degree in Journalism/Public Relations and has been working in the staffing industry for more than 25 years. Prior to this role, Matt held many different roles from branch recruiting and proposal writing to technology management and online marketing.
