Recruiting Ideas

Disclaimer: These creative and innovative recruiting ideas range from the common to the off-the-wall! Some are serious, some are humorous – but all are intended to get you thinking!

Recruiting New Applicants

1. Use alternate locations for registration.
2. Offer larger than normal referral bonus for difficult-to-fill positions.
3. Staff a mall kiosk to apply for work. Give gift certificate after 40 or 80 hours of work.
4. Hire a full-time recruiter.
5. When applicant turns down an assignment, ask if they know someone else who might be interested.
6. Systematically call applicant to ask for referrals.
7. Ask for referrals from manicurists, hair stylists, tanning salons. Give them company information to hand out. If they refer someone, give the applicant a certificate for free service at the salon.
8. Instant bonus for giving name of person they would refer ($1 lottery ticket).
9. Publicize your training room; better market your training facility.
10. Work with companies who are laying off – offer to help displaced workers.
11. Scenario recruiting – set up scenario, ask people to refer the people that fit the scenario (e.g. temps from other services, someone just laid off, someone going on spring break, etc.)
12. On-campus job fair – after 40 hours of work, donate $25 to school fund – $50 if school refers person to us.
13. Form alliance with human resources department to recruit applicants they can not use. If client later has a need for the applicant at their company and you haven’t placed him permanently, give the applicant back (second chance).
14. Use permanent applicants for temp work.
15. On-hold advertising.
16. Direct recruit during lunch hour.
17. Sponsor a break during a night course – provide free refreshments.
18. Use “free training”, if you provide it, in your classified ads.
19. Align with outplacement or resume services.
20. Recruit from 3rd party training schools.
21. Meet instructors of classes at local colleges, continuing education, etc.
22. Advertise on-line, especially for technical positions.
23. Pre-graduation mailing – “Apply with hundreds of companies at one time – we will market you.” Or, “You’ve got a job already? Yes, I sent my resume to XYZ Staffing.”
24. Ads for college interns – Get experience with XYZ Staffing.
25. Affiliate with Kinko’s – give temps a discount for copies.
26. Treasure hunt game – create treasure map. Give applicant a piece of the map for each referral given. Complete map to get prize.
27. Staff a booth or table in a grocery store for registration.
28. Ask clients if they have dissatisfied employees we could recruit away to save termination costs.
29. Make the application process more fun.
30. Lunch is on you – if applicants register on lunch break, by them lunch.
31. Borrow space at a university, or set up a table in the student union.
32. Ask other companies for creative and innovative recruiting ideas.
33. Align with local Realtors – recruit people relocating here.
34. Go to employment and job fairs.
35. Recruit from substitute teachers lists.
36. Hold a marketing event / open house for instructors, teachers, etc.
37. Speak at a class at community education or continuing education.
38. Ask your clients for referrals.
39. Open branch offices and move to territories for each branch.
40. Advertise in your clients’ newsletters.
41. Shop your competitors to get creative recruitment ideas.
42. Instruct a class at community education / continuing education.
43. Guest lecture at a local college.
44. Raise your minimum referral bonus amount.
45. Get testimonials from temps who have used your training facility.
46. Hold an open house.
47. Place a coupon in the paper – give something to the applicant for registration.
48. Write articles / columns in the school newspapers.
49. Use space at the Department of Labor.
50. List available positions with the Department of Labor.
51. Present a high school career day.
52. Mobile recruiting – bus for recruiting ideas.
53. Contact local libraries.
54. Recruit from GED classes.
55. Work with the Board of Education.
56. Advertise at theaters on-screen.
57. Offer remote testing – go to the temp.
58. Advertise on radio.
59. Get on your local morning news program.
60. Consider an infomercial.
61. Provide bus / shuttle service for registering.
62. Produce an XYZ Staffing video.
63. Advertise on city buses.
64. Go downtown and hand out $10 coupons to register.
65. Advertise on back of supermarket register tapes.
66. Hand out brochures in front of your competitors’ offices.
67. Have outside sales people display magnetic signs on their car doors.
68. XYZ Staffing bumper stickers -Beep if You’re a Temp.
69. Sign in front of urinals / bathroom stalls.
70. Give away phone calling cards to your temps.
71. XYZ Staffing “Classifieds” – fax or mail ad listings to local colleges & training centers to be displayed.

Applicant Retention and Reactivation

1. Keep your best temps employed.
2. Offer better pay to your temps – pay higher than your competition.
3. Don’t wait for the temp to end an assignment to plan for the next.
4. Don’t wait for the perfect assignment to come in – market the temp to clients.
5. Hand out referral bonuses on the job site; take picture for your newsletter.
6. In-office bulletin board with photos of your temps in action “XYZ Staffing on the Job.”
7. Offer free seminars on getting a job, preparing a resume, etc.
8. Work with companies who are adding staff.
9. Automate “Come Back & See Us. We want you back” cards. Mail with W-2’s.
10. Have a “Where are you now?” reunion. Share success stories. Have former applicants bring a friend, bring a boss, etc.
11. Implement an incentive program to pay for medical benefits. Ideas: work a minimum number of hours, or refer a minimum number of people. Must work 28 hours per week to stay on the plan. After 90 days eligible for the program; after 6 months you pay part.
12. Send monthly relationship builders to highly qualified temps – post cards, notes, birthday cards, etc.
13. Call to reactivate highly skilled temps.
14. Help temp applicants who want perm jobs find perm jobs as well.
15. Provide discounts on daycare.
16. Hold a special drawing for new applicants.
17. Develop a process for sending postcard, “Haven’t heard from you lately, are you still interested?”
18. Market to your inactive temps list.
19. Provide bonuses to long-term temps.
20. Offer your clients a faxed laundry list of temps coming available.
21. Provide more recognition for temps.
22. Develop a relationship between the temp and your staffing service.
23. Offer a scale for increased vacation time – earn more than one week.
24. Offer an XYZ Staffing day care service.
25. Hold an XYZ Staffing picnic for temps.
26. Allow temps to pick up paychecks at alternate locations.
27. Offer a frequent hours club – gift for working certain number of hours.
28. Develop a “permanent” staff of temporaries – guarantee your best temps 40 hours at minimum wage and offer them assignments first.
29. Call your temps “substitutes.”
30. Hold a happy hour / cocktail party downtown.
31. Hold a family fun night.
32. Develop and give away an XYZ Staffing Temp Cookbook.
33. Hold an XYZ Staffing golf outing.
34. Offer an XYZ Staffing Visa card.

Improving Skill Level of Current Applicants

1. Put a process in place for automatic follow-up after temps are interviewed. Encourage them to train and work for your service.
2. Get lists of job descriptions from clients, and train around these needs.
3. Gather evidence that training pays off for your temps – higher pay, better assignments, etc.
4. Quantify what improved skills mean to your temps.
5. Include an article in each issue of your newsletter discussing need for specific skills.
6. Provide coupons to your applicants for free training.
7. Provide coupons to train on a specific skill.
8. Offer additional training room hours, after business hours.
9. Ask the trainees why they are training.
10. Training party – hold a training class followed by a barbecue.

Other Recruitment Ideas..

1. Get client vacation schedules in advance to plan better for their needs.
2. Cross train temporary and permanent placement counselors in interviewing, to encourage applicant sharing between divisions.
3. After scheduling interviews, sell specific jobs to create a sense of urgency.
4. Use vacation planners as giveaways to clients.
5. Confirm scheduled interviews.
6. Follow up to no shows – ask them why they didn’t show, and possibly reschedule them.
7. Creative fills – use in-house staff to fill short-term orders for high potential clients.
8. Double-book interviews.
9. Conduct a blind survey to compare us to other services – use a fictitious company name. Ask temps for competitive information. Pay $50 to complete it.
10. Give temps a bonus for client referrals – tickets, training, free lunch, free training.
11. Create a job resource book for job hunters with ways to find jobs locally – important names, numbers, room for notes on job search, college names, or professional training.
12. Hold a “Temp of the Day” contest on local radio, where your clients call or fax in nominations. Good promotion for the radio station and your staffing service.