Recruiting Strategy
(December 01, 2000)
Given the explosion in Recruitment related services, little attention has been paid to the specifics of Recruiting Strategy. In a world driven by infinite novelty, it's difficult to keep the nose to the grindstone. However, Strategy is emerging as a key consideration.
Another word for strategy is "cost effective planning". With the extraordinary number of opportunities to spend and rapidly growing budgets, most recruiting shops need a plan on which they base their success. If a company's approach is jettisoned each time a new vendor emerges, the real Recruiting endeavor never gains traction. A number of firms, including our own Interbiznet Consulting Group, have emerged to carry some of the weight.
The key elements of a Recruiting Strategy include:
A clear picture of current and future staffing requirements (five years is a good horizon line)
An assessment of the skills, demographics and workload requirements of current employees
A solid definition of regional expansion plans
Training Requirements for Recruiting competency
Established communications patterns for hiring decision making
Clear criteria for hiring decision making
A clear understanding of regulatory requirements
A relationship with a team of creative copy writers
A detailed understanding of current and future marketplace trends
A process for identifying demographic targets
A conceptual map of the communications vehicles available for reaching demographic targets
A compelling story about the reasons this particular workplace is attractive
A job communications budget
A plan to measure the effectiveness of dollars spent on Recruiting
A database in which to collect data about potential employees
The ability to match job requirements against potential employees
A clear understanding of the supply-demand dynamics in the regions that will be recruited
Hiring Timeline objectives and a system to measure performance
A formal "vetting" process for new vendors
In other words, the development of a coherent Recruiting Strategy involves coming to a series of conclusions about sources and objectives. By leaps an bounds, technology and its implementation runs a distant second to questions that concern recruiting volume.