Will we start to see an increase in hiring before year’s end? What do some of the promising stats mean to HR and specifically talent management? According to Mike Tedesco, Alstin’s Senior Vice President, it’s time to use this 6-month period wisely and get strategies in place for when it’s time to act. Here’s Part Two of his 10-Step Plan. (Click here for Part One.)
6. Resume Searching/Mining
Most organizations purchase access to resume databases because they see the need to proactively recruit new talent. Unfortunately, usage of this important resource is usually lacking, either through difficulty in their inherent search platforms, the complexity of setting up search agents or just having too many different databases to search. But it doesn’t have to be so hard. We’ve come across a powerful platform that unifies search efforts and screening steps for all your sources from one single central location. It even offers automatic advice for search strings, sweeps all job board subscriptions (and free web sources), matches and ranks results and delivers them to the recruiter’s inbox. Search results can also deliver new candidates to market to – even if you don’t have a current need. That way you can build relationships with top talent that can be acted on in the future.
7. Develop an Alumni Networking Program
This idea is referred to in many ways: ex-employee recruiting; alumni networking; boomerang employees. Whatever terminology you use, reaching out to your organization’s best former employees is a great idea. We’ve all had employees we were sad to see move on. Try to entice them back or use them for referrals. Developing an online community may not be as daunting as you think!
8. Develop a Search Engine Marketing Campaign
Although this is listed further down on my list it should definitely be top of mind. Studies have shown that tons of job searches are started from the search engines, and not with a specific site like Monster or Careerbuilder. If you’re not implementing an SEM campaign you’re missing out on a lot of talent. Purchasing search keywords from Google that are specific to your industry, region or specialty will generate clicks and spread your employment brand awareness for a surprisingly modest investment.
9. Optimize Your Career Site
You have lots of jobs that need to be filled. Trouble is, they’re buried in your ATS/TAS and only accessible to candidates if they’ve visited your site. So, a physical therapist who takes a shortcut and uses Google or Yahoo to search for jobs won’t see that you have openings. We’ve come across an ingenious solution that unlocks those jobs. Consequently, you won’t have to post all of them to job sites in order to get exposure, thus reducing your job board expenditures.
10. When You Do Advertise
Utilize job and niche boards, targeted journals and publications, newspapers for mass market appeal, job fairs, virtual fairs, and other less-traditional means to advertise your message. And, when you do, make sure you’re not using internal job descriptions. Nothing turns off a candidate more than seeing a list of core responsibilities to tertiary tasks that’s twenty items long. Instead, market to them. Let them know how the position fits into the company’s structure, why it’s critical to the organization’s success, and how it’s an entry into a lifelong career path. Just this simple change will bring more top talent to your firm.
And one last word: measure, measure, measure. Track your expenditures, advertising sources, candidates, and hires so you’ll know what’s performing and what isn’t. You’ll refine your strategies and put systems into place that will result in less expenditures.
The recession will ultimately be over. Your company will be faced with growing operations and the need for talent to move it into the next decade. For you and your company, it’ll pay great dividends to follow these sound strategies today because you and your staff will realize better tactical performance tomorrow. Your organization will expand and prosper with help from HR. And your CEO will notice.
Want more ideas, strategies and Alstin’s solutions that will help get this done? Shoot me an email at blog@alstin.com.
