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Recruiting Hack #1: Stealing Talent (ethically)

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3 Strategies to Fill Job Orders Faster

How are you filling all your open job orders right now?

  • Posting more job ads?
  • Increasing your spend on Indeed and other pay-per-click sites?
  • Desperately posting jobs on social media?

With unemployment at record low levels, these all too common tactics are likely to produce few, if any, results. Why? Because you are going after the same people everyone else is going after—a diminishing pool of active job seekers!

To attract talent, go where the talent already is!

Right now, there are thousands of qualified temporary and contract employees who are the perfect fit for your clients. They just happen to be working for your competitors.

While I am NOT suggesting you engage in a despicable practice like temp-napping, there are strategies to make qualified temporary workers want to work for your staffing company instead of the competition. How?

1) Offer better jobs.

Okay, this strategy is pretty obvious, but are you implementing it? Right now, candidates can work just about anywhere they want, so the company that offers the best jobs is likely to attract the best talent.

How can you offer better jobs?

  • Increase pay rates.*
  • Provide better benefits.*
  • Offer flexible work schedules.*
  • Provide incentives like sign-on bonuses, assignment completion bonuses, and other performance rewards.
  • Offer more opportunities to learn new skills.
  • Represent marquis employers in your community (and use their name in your recruiting).
  • Focus on your temp-to-hire conversion rate – provide more opportunities to go “perm.”

* Yes, we get it; if you want to pay more (and offer better benefits), you need buy-in from your clients. And to get buy-in (and higher bill rates), you have to prove the positive financial impact of getting jobs filled faster, improving productivity, meeting deadlines, reducing overtime and all the other benefits of reducing time-to-hire and increasing worker quality.

2) Be a better place to work.

If you’re a temporary worker, you’re probably registered with 3 to 5 or more staffing agencies, and you probably have your choice of multiple job offers. So where do you choose to work? While job quality is the first deciding factor, the second one is the quality of the staffing company.

Are you the best staffing firm to work for in your market?

To find out, survey your candidates and ask them to compare you to your competitors. If you already are part of Inavero’s Best of Staffing competition, benchmark your performance against industry leaders. If nothing else, have your recruiters talk to your candidates. Ask them what they like—and don’t like—about working with your organization.

Next, process map the entire candidate journey – from the time they first see your job post and visit your website until they are redeployed on the next assignment. Document all the touch points. Document what the candidate has to do at each step of the process. And then figure out how to blow-up your process.

  • Are there any unnecessary steps you can eliminate?
  • How can you make the remaining steps faster, easier or just more enjoyable to complete?
  • Where could you improve communication throughout the process?

Here are a few specific ways to offer a better candidate experience:

  • Streamline your application process – shorter, optimized for mobile.
  • Provide immediate feedback – let people know where they stand.
  • Add a chat option to your website and job board.
  • Do a better job matching talent to jobs – offer people opportunities they really want.
  • Be proactive in marketing candidates to the right employers – don’t fill orders, place talent.
  • Provide more thorough (and accurate) orientation to each client and job opening.
  • Offer free training to help workers increase their pay.
  • Automate candidate communication from apply through placement through redeployment.
  • Remember people with a card or call on important dates like birthdays and service anniversaries.
  • Offer financial or non-financial rewards to people who are top performers.
  • Drop off thank you gifts or cookies to your onsite workers.
  • Be proactive about asking for feedback on the job assignment.
  • Help workers who are dissatisfied to transition to better jobs.
  • Create an app that simplifies time entry…and gives workers a way to reach you when they need you.
  • Treat people fairly.

3) Be more visible.

I don’t remember who did the study, but a few years ago there was a study of temporary workers, and they were asked to name a staffing company. Many could not even name their current employer. And less than half could name a second staffing firm.

If you want to “win the war for talent,” win the war for name recognition. Simply being a company that job seekers know can be a tremendous differentiator.

So how can you get job seekers to know you?

  • Advertise more.
    • Short-form radio and TV can be cost-effective for building brand awareness.
    • Outdoor advertising can make a big impact.
    • Don’t forget low-cost community publications like church bulletins.
  • Google and Facebook PPC.
    • Targeted pay-per-click campaigns can be highly effective in targeting specific people.
    • Remarketing – Stay top-of-mind with past visitors to your website.
    • Matched audiences – target ads to candidates already in your ATS to bring them back.
  • LinkedIn.
    • Build your talent network (and have every recruiter build theirs).
    • Share content (daily) via LinkedIn Pulse, LinkedIn groups and status updates.
  • Facebook.
    • Implement a “like” campaign to build followers.
    • Share educational and other content your candidates would value.
    • Leverage Facebook groups to share jobs and network.
  • Referrals.
    • Revamp your referral program to make it more enticing.
    • Ask for referrals from candidates…AND clients.
    • Build relationships with influencers in your community who can refer talent.
    • Make asking for referrals a habit…and a process.
    • Turn your temps into brand ambassadors with special programs to encourage referrals.
  • Grass roots marketing.
    • PR – share newsworthy stories with local media outlets.
    • Be more active in your community – sponsor social, civic and professional organizations.
    • Find other ways to increase your local visibility (brainstorm ideas with your team!)

BONUS STRATEGY

Steal the people who never think about working through a staffing firm!

As an industry, we have a huge branding people. People don’t know who we are, what we do, or why they should work with us. As a staffing professional, you know the tremendous value our industry can offer, but we have to get the “average Joe” to know how we can offer a shorter path to a great career.

So how do you educate the public about the value of staffing?

  • Through your website.
    • Blog about the value of staffing.
    • Write posts about your success stories.
    • Show off the caliber of jobs you offer and the quality of the employers you represent.
    • Become a resource for career advice in your community and industry.
  • Through social media.
    • Build your social followers every day (and have all your team members do the same).
    • Share content…every day. Be a non-stop source of career wisdom.
    • Use paid advertising on Facebook to target your content to your ideal candidates.
  • PR.
    • Share the stories showing how you are helping people to find their first jobs, advance their careers, return to the workforce, and earn a living.
    • Network with reporters – become a go to source of information about the local labor market.
  • Turn your temps into staffing evangelists.
    • Give them a great experience working for your firm.
    • Encourage them to share their stories with their friends and on social media.
    • Reward them for their referrals.

 

Want to Fill More Job Openings? Have a Better Strategy!

I hope this article has got you thinking about different ways to attract talent. While advertising more should be part of your recruiting strategy, job ads only address a small percentage of the total market. To fill more job orders, you need to attract more people. And to attract more people, you need to think about where those people are today—and how you can make them see you as a Best Place to Work.

If you have recruiting ideas you’d like to share, please reach out. We’re always looking for creating and innovative ways to attract, retain and redeploy talent.

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