Getting Your New Apprentices!
Advertise for a New Recruit and they will come
OR
How to waste both your time and your money!
Copyright Henry Winter 2007
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For a £100,000 a year job will your business REALLY spend 12 weeks in the interview process? Have the Chairman and his two closest advisers and 5 other advisers helping with the decision?

No, thought not. Great TV though.

I do not know why the above headline came into my head but I was driving back from a conference where I met quite a few HR people. No matter what everyone else says, if you are seeking to fill a key managerial position there is a lot of competition for it from other employers.

In the past Head Hunters were only used for very senior posts. But it seems, for some HR people, they are lowering the barrier so they start to use a Head Hunter for some lower level recruitment or at least they are using a recruitment agency and still paying quite big fees for jobs they really should be doing themselves. More of that later. [Note:I am not having a pop at headhunters, recruiters of HR people.]

Either way it means more money lost to the business.

Head Hunters do a great job and are worth their rather large fees if they get you the right candidate. They do the ad for you. They buy the ad space (and make money on that at your expense too). They screen the candidates, suggest the short list that you also spend time interveiwing too. You decide (if they are good) and hire or not. The offer goes and they accept and your off to the races - and 20-33%+ of the new compensation package worse off in fees to your recruiter. In our £100,000 a year scenario by the time you have finished with the company car, pension, and all the other bits and prices you are probably down by a minimum £20-30K in fees if not more.

But is that the best approach and ROI?

Really its a typical marketing problem.

1. Few employers, large or small, have a regular drip feed campaign that promotes their business when they are not recruiting One that makes the business attractive enough to get a steady stream of the right type of candidates approaching the company at ALL times.
2. When they are recruiting the adverts produced are invariably full of "corporate speak". They do not the give their company (or the role they are trying to fill) enough personality to attract the right candidates or the exactly right skills.
3. Other than the typical call to action - "Send us your CV", there is nothing to weed out the desperate job seekers with polished CV's created by someone else getting in your pile and wasting your time.

The combination of all three drives you nuts and you either get lower skilled people in the role you cannot fill or go to a recruiter to "save you time and money". Either way, not what you want.

OR

Save yourself the recruiters fees:
1. Create a regular campaign of information, PR and stories about your business. Get it on the radio, in the local press (and national if appropriate), that make your company brilliant to work for. That will create a drip feed of candidates that will sit in your databank, not the reruiters.
2. When you are recruiting give your advert "personality". Why? Because, as you know, personality - or lack of it - polarises people. They like you or they don't. And thats what you want - to polarise away those people who will not fit your company personality.
3. Give your ad a different call to action, something that will make the candidate do something different that will help you immediatley see they have the skills and commitment you need. Get them to write you a Whitepaer on a specific aspect releavant to the job. After all you could always use it (or bits of it) later!
4. That way the ad, the call to action between them, plus the drip feed will enable you to have a self selected shortlist. Other than spend time reading the hot CVs you have not spent much money or time.
5. You see the shortlist of the right candidates and Bobs your uncle and your competition are left wondering how an earth your business is going so well when they cannot get the right candidates to approach them let alone interview them.

It is quite likely that this little blog will polarise a few people too! But thats OK.

If it does and you don't agree with it you won't be contacting me anyway.

If it hits a cord you will, or may at least think about it. And if you do - its because you have the right personality and approach to work with some one like me - so we will both be happy.

So, next time you have a post to fill bear this blog in mind and if want help crafting a winning recruitment ad bear me in mind too. Its a lot less expensive than a recruiters fee.

All the best with gaining your New Apprentices - until next time

Henry Winter
webmaster@livewirebusiness.com
Copywriter, Author, Marketer, Business Advisor