By Blake DuBose and Mike DuBose
With so many Americans unemployed, today’s market should theoretically teem with smart, self-motivated potential employees. Yet many employers have become picky, complaining that they can’t find good workers with the necessary skills. University of Pennsylvania business professor Peter Cappelli recently challenged this notion in The Wall Street Journal, asserting, “The real culprits are the employers themselves.”
In our opinion, the major reason for poor applicant response is outdated, insufficient recruiting methods used by employers. For example, newspaper ads were standard ten years ago, but a statewide newspaper’s classified section recently featured only seven jobs! How do employers—like one recruiter we interviewed who received a whopping 500 applications for 19 nursing positions—attract large, well-rounded groups of applicants? As we recently found at DuBose Web Group, utilizing different advertising methods draws diverse, experienced individuals to apply. We executed the following creative strategies to find our newest team members:
Establish precise expectations: First, we defined exactly what we were looking for in the job description, which decreased the number of unqualified applicants.
Make applying easy: Many employers require lengthy, time-consuming applications. Instead, we created a webpage (linked to our homepage) with employment ads and clear job descriptions. It included a simple electronic form for applicants to provide basic information, including: name, e-mail, best contact times/methods, college grade point average, requested salary, résumé, where they learned about the new positions, and a short letter on why they wanted the job. These letters allowed us to assess applicants’ passions, priorities, writing styles, humility, and ways of thinking, which gave us insight into how well they would be suited to our work culture.
Use technology wisely: To help candidates find our listings, our programmer coded our website to feature prominently on Google searches for key words (this proved to be our most effective strategy!). Then, a neat program we developed transferred completed applications to a password-protected Excel-based spreadsheet, keeping new submissions separate from old and allowing us to view each candidate’s profile online. Individuals who completed applications received automatic e-mails confirming that we had received their information and describing the next steps in the process. This kept applicants engaged while discouraging disruptive follow-up calls and e-mails. We also alerted those who had applied to previous jobs so they could try again or spread the word to others.
Though you should definitely make use of technology as an aid, remember that the employment process requires a human touch. Many companies screen candidates using software that compares skills, experience, and education to job qualifications and miss great people because characteristics like passion aren’t considered. In fact, in a May 2012 Wall Street Journal article, an HR director put himself through job-screening software as a test—and failed to make the cut! If someone fits our companies’ culture and is smart and hardworking, we’re happy to teach them the skills they need for the job.
Be more than just a paycheck: Today’s job candidates want to look forward to going to work and following their passions. To help individuals decide if they wanted to work with us, we included a statement on our employment webpage that explained our companies’ Golden Rule-based values.
Diversify: Employers often fail to spread their nets wide enough when advertising job openings. Since we wanted to fill three different positions (technical writer, programmer, and graphic designer), we used three separate advertising strategies based on questions like, “What do these folks read? How do we reach them?”
Each strategy was based on multiple methods, including:
Word-of-mouth: Our employees are excellent ambassadors. They know what it is like to work within our family of companies and often talk to others about our friendly culture. Thus, we turned to team members first, asking them to share our openings with friends, family, and industry colleagues through their personal Facebook and e-mail accounts. We alerted clients about the job openings as well, which proved an excellent way to inform them of our company’s expansion.
Social media: Facebook, Linked-In, Google+, and Twitter’s billion-plus users make them rich hiring resources. You can narrow your searches by location, education, and experience, helping you pinpoint desirable candidates.
Trade associations: These organizations are excellent places to spread employment opportunity news, especially if you are seeking applicants with particular skills or technical knowledge.
Newspaper advertising: We purchased a package from our regional newspaper that included ads in the professional and technology classified sections (which ran on two Sundays) and corresponding CareerBuilder.com ads. To save money, we listed all three positions in the same ad with the phrase “Come work for a great, friendly company” and a link to our website for details. The five-line classified ad, combined with CareerBuilder.com, cost around $700 (the best deal for us).
Online advertising: Employers can contract directly with CareerBuilder.com, Monster.com, or similar job-hunting site without the newspaper component. In July 2012, a 30-day CareerBuilder.com posting cost $419. To help qualified people find their ads, recruiters can utilize free screening questions or pay an extra charge for other services (like targeted e-mails to desirable candidates).
We posted our ads for free on Craigslist.com, but this generated significant spam. Job boards for major universities and state government (scworks.org) proved more effective, and we contacted specific college departments to access recent graduates in relevant fields.
Internships: We have hired many former interns. Both parties benefit: graduate students gain real-world experience through practicums, while we are able to assess their work habits, skills, and attitude without paying expensive fringe benefits. Some companies have established short-term internships for college graduates to test their skills and fit within the organization (a great idea!).
Screen thoroughly: After studying the all applicants’ letters and résumés, we quickly invited the strongest candidates to participate in telephone interviews. Then, we narrowed our search to at least two finalists per position. They completed detailed employment applications, underwent background screenings, and took personality/aptitude tests (which generated interview questions and highlighted concerns) before being invited to formal face-to-face interviews. After we selected the successful candidates, we personally called the unsuccessful finalists and wrote nice notes to everyone who applied. On a humorous note, one rejected candidate responded, “You’re a bunch of idiots!” Hmm, wonder why he didn’t get the job?
Experience counts: Leaders should view recruitment as an evolving process requiring constant innovation. We research creative new ideas, ask our employees and others in the industry for input, and use traditionally successful methods to ensure that our advertising attracts great employees.
The bottom line: Think outside, under, and around the box when searching for employees. It’s wonderful to have great teams like ours!
You can reach Blake and Mike at [email protected]
