Courting Talented Employees Who Aren’t on the Job Market: Tips
Traditional methods of recruiting and staffing don’t seem to be paying off very well for your company. The standard path of publishing a broad posting, screening the applicants who choose to respond, and then interviewing the final contenders may work for some firms, but not for yours. You don’t want to choose from a self-selected pool of candidates anymore. Instead, you’d rather take control of the staffing process and actively hunt down the talented employees you want and need.
Will this method resolve your staffing issues? Can an aggressive and proactive approach build a strong workplace culture and a cycle of active growth? Possibly, but keep these tips in mind as you go forward.
Looking for employees who aren’t looking for you:
- Aggressively courting employees will require research, and research will require money, time, investment and risk. You’ll need to enlist an active network in the industry to help you keep an eye out for rising stars, which will require a high level of social and networking savvy. And remember, when a little bird brings you a name, you’ll need to find out more by asking the right questions to the right people. An internet search will only take you so far.
- When you’re trying to draw happily employed workers away from employers who pay them well and treat them with respect, your leverage will be at or close to zero. You’ll need to make up for this by offering higher compensation than you would under other circumstances. If you have a line of candidates winding down the block, you can reap long term savings on salary expenditures. But you can’t do this when you recruit proactively. Assess your budget flexibility before you act.
- You’ll need the resources to follow through on your promises. Talented workers always have options, so once you’ve lured them on board, your job isn’t over. You still have to keep them. Whatever you offer (flexibility, opportunity, etc.) will need to materialize, or your hard-won new relationship won’t last very long.
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