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HOW TO: Recruit Without Technology and Stand Out
April 20, 2010
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Have you noticed most recruiting strategies today are technical, revolving around social networks, the blogosphere or search engines? Forget Google. Drop Twitter. Leave LinkedIn. Disconnect from everything that's technical and has you glued to your computer or mobile device to recruit talent. There are plenty of other effective ways to reach job seekers without being dependent on machines. Packed inside this article are 50+ no-tech (no technology required) ideas to help recruiters build awareness for their careers offline and get a potential edge searching for candidates. Most are designed to get you out of your chair and hit the streets in one way, shape or form.

Events

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Join the speaking circuit and offer to speak at local events. Find your local SHRM chapter or technology council. Attend Toastmasters, Dale Carnegie speaking courses or other networking events. Connect with The Chamber of Commerce on professional groups. Set-up a booth at a trade show or job fair. Contact local schools, churches and associations about classes, seminars and lectures you can speak or teach at. Offer demonstrations of your services or products in person at local stores or businesses. Pick a target audience and create a contest focused towards them, but make sure to offer a substantial prize that will raise eyebrows and get good word-of-mouth and traffic. Sponsor a local business event or even a sporting team in a little league. Don't overlook recruiting specific events from the likes of ERE, SourceCon and Onrec as well.

Programs

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Develop a referral program and make recruiting work behind the scenes for you. Build your own army of recruiters sending you candidates for your positions. Offer real incentive for your employees or anyone you have a touchpoint with to contribute to your referral program. Make the incentives substantial! If your company would hire a search firm and spend a fee in the high thousands, why not offer the same to everyone else. Make your workforce and those you come into contact with your personal search firm, offering $5K, $10K or a large percentage of the first year hire and just see how your results dramatically increase. Make sure to offer this program to outside resources. A common mistake by recruiting departments is to close this program off to internal employees only. Also, don't forget to ping family and friends and help spread the word on real tough searches. What about an internship program as well? This could be extremely valuable for your business. Get the top talent in your local area on board with your company early. Take advantage while they are not very known yet in the market and who are willing to get their first real-world experience with your company. Recruit them while on board in this internship and convert as many of these high-quality part-time resources into full-time employees.

Press

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Reach out to local TV stations, find an interesting angle and offer to be interviewed. Call into radio shows and plug your business and job openings. Write an article or column for your local newspaper or magazine. Tap bloggers, trainers and coaches in your industry as they already have built-in readership and clients they can help promote you to. Try a press release. Write a book. Pitch industry publications. Go old school and use the original "wall" by posting your job openings where permitted in office parks and buildings for experienced professionals, or dorms and campus facilities for entry-level college talent. Get rid of your business cards. Drop them in relevant books, leave them in office building lobbies, restaurants, pubs and yes, even restrooms. Tack them to bulletin boards where allowed. Don't let them collect dust in your desk! Also work to get your company listed in the Yellow Pages, local business directories and other publications.
 

Gear

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Give away your company shwag. I'm not talking about promotional materials embroidered with your logo (that will get thrown away), but rather the good stuff. Try t-shirts, high-quality pens (you'll know it's good if it's heavy), even coffee mugs, or clocks for the office desk. Print a calendar of your upcoming events or newsletter with your opportunities. How about iPods with a personal recorded message waiting inside. These are things that will stick with the candidate and give you many more "impressions" beyond any email or phone call. Heading out of the office? Make sure to wear your company gear and get noticed!

[ This post entitled HOW TO: Recruit Without Technology and Stand Out is filed under communities and originated by the blog of recruiting leader and sourcing consultant Geoff Peterson. ]

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Want to work with Geoff Peterson?

Geoff Peterson is available for strategic recruiting and sourcing engagements, social media and mobile recruiting consultations, speaking events, custom workshops and classes, coaching, mentoring and interviews. For more information, please visit the contact page.

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A Darn Good Recruiter
written by Steve Levy, April 21, 2010
GP-ah, the joy of being "anti-social"... Funny thing how so many recruiters can spin a nice email or Twitter yarn but then have difficulty going face-to-face.

One way I use events like trade/professional shows is to show up during setup day. I'll bring donuts and coffee and walk around to competitors booths and offer the goods to the peeps working there. Instant relationships...t

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