Myth 1: I don’t have time to recruit.
Recruiting is like bathing – it’s effective only if you do it every day. If you recruit only “when you have the time,” you severely limit your ability to attract and hire the best. If you don’t make any recruiting efforts until you actually need to hire someone, it’s just like grocery shopping on an empty stomach – you’ll grab the first thing that looks good. Feeling pressured to hire someone causes you to be less selective and often results in a bad hiring decision.
Effective recruiting is an on-going process. It is the same as – and just as important as – your marketing efforts to attract new customers. Effective recruiting is proactive and consistent.
Recruiting doesn’t have to be time consuming either. Simply print a recruiting message on the backside of your business card: “We’re looking for great people to join our dynamic, fun-loving team. If you’d like to explore employment opportunities with us, call me for a confidential interview.” Give this card to people you think you’d like to hire who you meet when doing your personal shopping and errands as well as at industry events, meetings, and community gatherings.
Myth 2: I have enough team members. I don’t need to recruit.
Even though you’re fully staffed today, you never know what tomorrow will bring. People move or decide to go back to school or even, heaven forbid, take a new job elsewhere. If you have an active recruiting program in place, you won’t be thrown for a loop when the inevitable happens.
You’ll get even better results if you make recruiting everyone’s responsibility. An Employee Referral Rewards Program is a great way to get your entire staff involved. And be sure to ask your customers and vendors if they know of any good people they could recommend too. You could also give all team members a button to wear that reads, “Ask me about a great place to work.”
What gets measured gets done, so, set a goal for the number of recruiting cards you’ll pass out or applications you’ll collect every week. By taking a proactive, marketing approach to recruiting, you’ll build a data base of pre-screened, potential applicants to call on whenever you have a need.
