Reaching for the STARS Nov 1, 2000 12:00 PM
, Alan Darling
JobZone
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Recruiting strategies that capture the best and the brightest
employees
Today's free-for-all, full-employment job marketplace may be a dream
come true for employees, but the picture is less rosy for employers.
More and more catalog companies are becoming dismayed with the quality
of applicants they are getting from newspaper ads, particularly when
they need someone with a mail order background. Successful companies
are using a variety of techniques to seek out the best and the
brightest, rather than waiting for those applicants to come to
them.
"I'm not sure there are any easy positions to fill these days," says
Bob Allen, CEO of Vermont Country Store, a $66 million general
merchandise cataloger based in Manchester, VT. "But the most difficult
positions for us to fill have been in information technology. We have
also had a great deal of difficulty filling merchandising positions. I
believe that this scarcity of qualified candidates is partly the result
of the dot-com companies luring good buyers with incentives such as
stock options."
There are two ponds that companies can fish from to find candidates.
The first is easy to reach but has few fish, small fish, and many
fishermen. The second pond has many fish, bigger fish, and few
fishermen, but it's more difficult to reach.
The first pond consists of people who are looking for jobs. This
includes not only unemployed workers but also, according to research,
8% of all employed executives. Most companies concentrate their
recruiting time and effort on these prospects. But these candidates
generally turn over at high rates and aren't of the same quality and
caliber as those who are not looking for jobs. Companies usually reach
these job seekers through newspaper advertising, the Internet,
employment agencies, and other traditional methods.
The second pond has the 92% of employed executives who are not
actively looking for jobs - but they could be persuaded to change their
minds, given the the right incentives. These are generally the best
people out there, and they're the ones you need to aggressively pursue
if you're going to build a highly effective organization. They are also
the most difficult audience to entice with even the best print and
Internet advertising campaign, because they're not even thinking about
changing jobs.
Recruiting these passive candidates requires a new mindset - one of
going after potential candidates regardless of whether they are on the
job market. "Our best recruiting is done word-of-mouth," says Vermont
Country Store's Allen. "We have a good network. When we're looking for
a buyer, for example, we call our vendors and let them know. Then
they'll suggest qualified candidates. Perhaps half of our positions for
buyers and midlevel managers have been filled in that way."
Recruiting over the long haul The best recruiting efforts start
years before a position is filled. You regularly meet qualified people
at conferences and trade shows - make these contacts work for you.
Whenever you meet someone who could potentially help your organization,
grab his or her card, record any relevant information, and file it.
Contact the people in these files at least once a year (plus send a
holiday card), and when a job opens up, turn to this file first. You
shouldn't have to beat around the bush with these candidates by the
time the situation arises - if you've played your cards right, you
should know them well enough that you can ask them directly if they're
interested in working for you. If they're not, ask them if they know
any rising stars who would be.
Many firms, particularly the larger ones, now have formal employee
referral plans that involve the entire company in the recruitment
process. For one of these plans to work, however, it needs to be more
than just a good idea on paper; you must actively reinforce it. Use all
methods of internal promotion available. For instance, post information
about all open positions prominently throughout your company, rather
than hiding them away on one wall in the human resources department,
and call attention to especially hard-to-find or highly needed
positions. What's more, have the human resources staff and the
department managers speak regularly to employees one-on-one about the
plan to heighten awareness.
"Whenever anyone walks in to my office, I ask him who he knows,"
says Jim Hayek, executive vice president of human resources at Bear
Creek Corp., the Medford, OR-based corporate parent of food, plants,
and gifts catalogs Harry and David, Jackson & Perkins, and
Northwest Express. Bear Creek has an active employee referral program
that pays participating employees referral bonuses of $1,000-$3,000.
This is clearly the company's number-one method of recruiting
professionals, far exceeding methods such as Internet and print
advertising.
Apparel cataloger Lands' End has a similar formal employee referral
plan, in which employees who refer candidates are paid bonuses of
$1,000-$2,000. "Internal referrals have been our most effective tool,"
says Tom Gloudeman, director of recruitment and development for the
Dodgeville, WI-based company. "A third, perhaps even half, of our
external hires are identified this way. Our employees know the type of
person who will fit in here, so the candidates are better-quality
candidates - they tend to be the folks who can hit the ground running.
I don't ask employees who they know who is looking for a job. Instead,
it's far more effective to ask who they know who would be successful
here."
L.L. Bean has a formal employee referral program only for its
information technology department, but the Freeport, ME-based cataloger
informally taps employees in all departments when people are needed to
full positions, says employment manager Bob Schmidt. The company has
found creative positions particularly difficult to fill, so when there
is an opening, it encourages its art directors to network with ad
agencies and other creative operations.
Stealing the superstars Some companies consider it unethical - or
simply too time-consuming - to make cold calls to people they don't
know at their competitors' offices. But this tactic should be, in fact,
one element of a successful recruitment program.
The catalogers we spoke to rarely use this approach, but the
technique is common among high-tech firms. You can learn a lesson from
high-tech companies, because they recruit in the most competitive job
market that exists today: There are 300,000 more software development
positions available than there are takers.
If you still aren't convinced, consider this exceptional (and true)
story. A vice president of human resources for a major computer
manufacturer set out to hire his company's first senior training
person. After some research, he determined that there was only one man
for the job - the senior training manager at IBM. So the HR executive
had his secretary confirm that this man would be in his office at IBM
on a certain day, flew to New York, and wrangled his way right into his
prospect's office at IBM headquarters. At first, his prospect squawked
and threatened to call security. But the HR executive persisted,
explaining to the candidate why he was the only person for the job. The
pursuit paid off: After several meetings, the prospect accepted.
You can do your own version of this type of search without even
leaving your office. If you need a vice president of merchandising, for
example, you could start by making a short list of companies who would
employ a person with the skills you're seeking, and then identify the
individuals at those companies who are doing that job. This can be done
by using directories or by calling the target company and simply asking
who is in charge of, in this instance, merchandising. Then make a
series of quick phone calls to the most likely candidates; you may be
surprised at what develops.
To fill lower-level positions, you can get your own people involved.
If you're looking for a network administrator, once you identify a key
prospect, have someone in your information technology department call
the person, lead off under the pretense of asking a technical question,
and then work the conversation around to his real objective: to find
out if the prospect knows someone who would like to come to work for
your company (if that person is interested, he or she will suggest
himself). Microsoft, by the way, has a department filled with employees
making cold calls to competitors all day long, and that's one way the
company gets its superstars.
Surfing for staffers All the catalogers we contacted are finding
that newspaper advertising has become less and less effective for them,
and consequently they are investing more of their time on the
Internet.
"The Internet is a wonderful tool, but it is time-consuming," says
Bear Creek's Hayek. "A lot of mining is needed. But it does help us
find people whom we wouldn't find anywhere else. Many people who are
not seriously in the job market have posted their resumes on a Website
or two because it's relatively effortless, and you can identify them
there."
In addition to placing Internet ads and using resume databases,
Hayek and his staff enter chat rooms on areas of expertise where they
are likely to find qualified candidates. For instance, if they are
looking for a technical person, they may enter a chat room on software
issues and e-mail prospects who post comments there. In fact, Hayek is
considering adding an employee to mine the Internet full-time.
L.L. Bean has had some success with Internet recruiting,
particularly for its information technology department, with job boards
such as Careerbuilder.com, Monster.com, and Hotjobs.com producing the
best results. But it has by no means become the cataloger's primary
source for external hiring.
"The Internet has to some degree increased our pool of quality
applicants," Bean's Schmidt says. "But it also significantly increases
our pool of unqualified applicants too and generates a lot of false
leads that you have to sort through. It has its place, but it is not
nearly as effective as employee referrals."
Give them the star treatment Other than outstanding athletes who
have been sought after by college coaches, very few people have ever
truly been recruited, so a company's pursuit is likely to pique a
prospect's interest. If the candidate has even a germ of interest, go
after him or her with wild abandon. That candidate will then see you
and your company as he sees no other - in a class of its own. After the
first contact, dazzle the candidate by sending a Priority Mail package
filled with information on the company and the area. The cost is
minimal (only $3.20), but the impact is huge.
At the interview, impress the candidate. (You can do this at the
same time you're gathering information about the candidate and
determining whether he or she will fit in your organization.) The key
is to make every candidate leave your office wanting the job. You can
decide later whether to offer it to him or her.
After an interview, if you were impressed with the candidate, leave
a message saying as much on his or her home voice mail. If the
candidate is an out-of-towner, send the local newspaper from where the
company is based to his or her home for a month or two. Keep the dialog
going, even if you're considering other candidates. The worst thing you
can do is leave the candidate in the dark for weeks. Ultimately, you
want to choose the best candidate, rather than hire the only person
who'll take the job. Keep all candidates interested so that you can
have a choice.
The old recruitment techniques of running ads and waiting for people
to come to you may have been easier, but those days are over. Today you
can't build your business solely with the people who are looking for
work - the labor market is just too tight. Besides, companies that
focus on pursuing not-in-the-job-market candidates have found the
results to be superior. "This type of networking takes more work, and
we get a lot more `no' answers," says Gloudeman. "But the employees we
ultimately generate this way are better, and stay longer."
