If you’ve walked the city and suburb streets lately, opened a newspaper, or scrolled through social media, you’ve likely discovered a recurring theme:
Good employees are wanted. Everywhere.
It’s not just your company that’s looking for good, solid employees. It’s the entire country. And once you’ve hired who you need, the question is, “How do I keep them?”
It’s a unique time. Let’s look at some unique ways to find good candidates for employment.
Creative ways to find good employees
Assuming your work environment and culture are a positive one (more on that to come), one of the newest trends to find good candidates is to pay them to interview. This, of course, means that you’re only bringing in the very best applicants for the position, and showing the interviewees that you value their time. Add a line in your job posting like “We know your time is valuable so we want to pay you for the time you take to meet with us.”
Connect with your local technical and vocational school. Instructors love to watch for their talented students and recommend them to employers. Their top students will likely make good employees. You can do this with universities as well.
Optimize your job postings by incorporating keywords, terms someone would likely search on, to find your job. Let candidates know they don’t have to endure a formal, stuffy, stressful interview. You can conduct an interview that’s thorough and that follows traditional interviewing guidelines but it can be friendly and informal. Saying so in your job posting could help attract candidates, maybe something like “We don’t believe in stuffy, formal job interviews. We’ll do everything we can to make your visit with us a pleasant one.”
Consider a creative job title. How about “Number Ninja” for an accounts payable position, “Chief of Chatting” for a call center manager, “First Impressions Director” for a receptionist, or “Randomness Manager” for and administrative assistant. Your job title and description should target your ideal applicant. Make sure it’s not too vague and that your description is clear and precise. If you need ideas for how to go about that, check out this article. 10 Creative Job Posts and Ads That Will Inspire Yours (linkedin.com)
Use the referrals of your current good employees. If you haven’t already, consider starting an employee referral program. Offer a monetary incentive to team members who bring qualified candidates to the table or consider using paid time off as an incentive for your current employees to bring in others.
Use social media. It can be one of your biggest allies if used properly. LinkedIn allows you to post jobs for free and shows your postings to qualified candidates. With over 690 million users, that’s a great opportunity to have massive exposure.
Of course, job sites like Zip Recruiter, Indeed, Monster, etc. are veterans to the hiring world and have streamlined the process of finding qualified individuals. Just as important as these large, international sites are, make sure you’re also posting in your local area. WorkOne, employee referrals, and asking your friends and family are just as beneficial as posting to the masses.
Finally, consider joining local Business Networking Groups such as BNI or IndyHub to ask for the employees you need in a group of like-minded business professionals. There is power in connecting with other business owners. Maybe they had a great hire but that person just didn’t fit with their companies’ ideas and culture, but would be perfect for you.
The work life culture is changing. To find good employees, let’s adapt and adjust to those changes… quickly. It doesn’t mean you abandon everything you’ve been doing, but it does mean asking, “how can we do this better for everyone concerned?”
Tune in to our next blogpost when we share creative, new things you can do to keep the good employees you’ve got.
