The trick with recruiting top talent cost effectively is finding people that others are not already targeting. Here is a way to get your creative juices running.
Take a marketing approach to the recruitment challenge and think about the four elements of your marketing mix – Product, Place, Price and Promotion. Let’s take each in turn
Product – what are you offering that will distinguish you from the competitors and attract the talent to your job? Full time, long term employment? career prospects? Flexibility? Freedom? Challenge? Training and development? Better pay and conditions? Opportunity to travel? Opportunity to grow with the company? And so forth. These will vary depending on if you are a small or large employer, or a start up or well established brand. You should also think about these in terms of the message it sends to the talent that you want to recruit and retain.
Place – what can you do here that gives you ‘an edge’? Is this flexible – times of work, location of work, working from home; is your business located in a low cost or high cost area? Is there high or low unemployment? What are the available skills? What transferable skills can you tap into and transform.
Price – how does your pay/reward compare? Generally the less you wish or can afford to pay the more you need to do on the other areas. Whilst there is considerable evidence that people are not motivated by money alone it is a good 'iniital hook' so if you do not have the luxury of being able to compete on salary/financial benefits, think about the other things you can offer that will be just as if not more attractive to some of your target candidates.
Promotion – how do you plan to attract people? There is a simple balance here. Time vs. Cash. The more time you can put into it the lower the cost. Think about sources of candidates and where you might find people and then target these - flyers to checkout operators for telesales jobs, lunch time gym for creatives etc.
You should then do a simple SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis.
Think about who your competitors are for the people and skills you are looking for. Think also of the different sources of suitable people. You need to think very broadly. The more sources you can identify the larger your candidate pool and the greater you chances of both finding and recruiting the people you need
Strengths
What do you have that will:
- Appeal to your target group; and
- Distinguish you from your competitors.
If you are a very small company – what can you sell as the benefits? Conversely if you are large, what would you identify here?
Weaknesses
Think about this from the point of view of the candidates you are trying to attract and your competitors. What might put them off joining you - find ways to mitigate these
Opportunities
Have you explored the types of flexibility you are willing to offer? Have you thought about what you can do to make you company an attractive recruiter? Do you know what your target candidates value, see as important, would be attracted to?
Threats
What might make your competitors or other companies in the same location more attractive than you? What happens if you train people and they leave? And so on.
Having done the SWOT use the thinking to come up with answers and solutions to the problems and to frame and shape your positioning in the market place. Thinking and acting strategically will reap rewards.
