Outside the box recruiting |
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December 14th, 2007 -- by Tracey Sands
Employers are looking for creative ways of hiring employees. Whether that is due to a competitive market place, or not as many qualified candidates, it depends on the field. One thing in common is some of the outside the box recruiting techniques employers are using.
The various ways of recruiting employees are:
• Specified job fairs
• Internal recruiting – employee referrals
• Seasonal employees
• Job ads (workopolis, craigslist, monster)
• Hiring co-op students
• Using individuals as contractors initially then hiring them once they have proven themselves
• Hiring freelance instead of full-time
• Utilizing government programs – hiring disabled workers
• Hiring retired individuals
• Internal promotions
• Hire non-traditional employees – homemakers, part time, new immigrants
• Recruit outside country or province
Let’s go over each one:
A specified job fair is a job fair that is geared to a certain trade or profession. They are usually announced in newspapers and by email. A company sets up a booth and explains the benefits of working for their organization to people who stop by.
Internal recruiting is quite popular. You get your employees to refer friends or old coworkers for positions that are open in your company.
Seasonal employees are employees that are hired for the season. An example, ski resorts would only hire employees during the ski season.
Job ads, are putting an ad on workopolis.com, or craigslist, or monster; or putting an ad in your local paper. This is the traditional way that recruiting is done.
Valerie Corbin BA, a human resources consultant for hire at full circle consulting, had this to say about why she would hire a student as opposed to just an employee,
Students are a wonderful resource – imagine you are hiring an individual generally for no money if they in a co-op program, or for minimal cost – you in turn encounter an individual who is enthusiastic, wants to make a terrific first impression, intelligent, open to new ideas, and has the leading edge on education. All of this rounds out to a person who wants to show you why they are the person you should hire – it is like an ongoing interview where no one can lose!
Using individuals as contractors and than hiring them once they work out is a new, outside the box idea. Valerie had this to say,
No one says you have to hire a full time person immediately. Why not bring individuals on in a contract capacity. Depending on the job, ensure you are aware of the legalities surrounding the contract employee. This is a great short and long term solution.
Hiring disabled workers as opposed to regular workers is also a new trend. When asked why Valerie would hire a disabled worker over a regular worker she said;
As an employer think of what I like to call ‘Corporate Karma,’ disabled workers are intelligent, capable and hard working people who offer great value. Their minds are not affected by any injury they have suffered. However, they do have to try harder to get a job they are qualified for. As an employer you can help your organization and an individual; hire a person who has the right skills, demonstrate to your employees that your organization will not discriminate even subtly, and show others that you are a good corporate citizen, this is truly a win-win situation.
Hiring retired workers, is becoming the norm. One just has to look at McDonald’s or Wal-Mart to see retired workers working there.
Internal promotions are a great way to motivate current employees. It encourages the employee to try and improve their job skills and to move their way up in the company. This helps reduce turnover and keeps the employee with your organization.
When Valerie was asked why she would hire non-traditional workers like immigrants, she had this to say;
This is a great way to deal with tight labor market, and gain tremendous skills for your organization. You are also helping to assist people trying to start their career in a new country.
Whatever way your company recruits employees currently, you may have to prepare yourself for outside the box recruiting. In today’s job market, there seem to be more jobs than employees.
December 17th, 2007 at 10:36 pm
The newer job boards are attempting to recruit passive candidates by introducing social networking and referral bonuses for users. while this may not be as effective as face to face networking it is definitely easier and less time consuming
December 23rd, 2007 at 9:03 pm
We started bonfirejobs.com as an attempt to provide another platform for job seekers and employers to interact. The site is based upon the concept that employers are willing to pay for prompt reply by candidates.
Employers have free access to reviewing candidate resumes and pay (the *candidate*) only when candidates reply to connection requests within 24-hours.
We have only recently launched, but would be curious if you or your readers have any feedback or suggestions for improvement.
January 3rd, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Michael, I would be interested in checking out your site and learning more about it, it sounds like an interesting idea.
T