Looking for top-notch employees? Here are pointers on how to find them.
Many of us are still complaining about how difficult it was to hire in 2007. This year might not be any easier, so let's kick it off right by working a lot smarter and only a little bit harder.
There are several tactics your company can implement immediately that will improve its recruiting efforts. Putting in place the right leadership, marketing more effectively to candidates and some tweaks in HR will increase the flow and quality of your candidate pool. Allow me to explain.
Land a talent magnet
Great people are drawn to other great people. Hiring the right company leader or manager can make other positions much easier to fill. Remember that true A players go to new opportunities for learning and to step up their game. If you have a mogul who is highly regarded in the industry, top talent will want to follow for an opportunity to work with him or her.
Last year an online publisher wanted to retain our firm to search for several directors of sales. We soon learned that the company was planning to eventually hire a VP of sales. Instead of taking the multiple director searches, we recommended to the client for the company to retain us for the VP role. Once we filled the position, the new sales leader was able to quickly hire a team. In the end, the company saved time and money.
Do more than post
If job posting is working for your recruiting efforts, that's great. However, if it's not and you want to catch the eyes of people who aren't actively looking, try other forms of career advertising. For example, DoubleClick just did a very cool campaign right here on iMedia. They featured online videos of their employees promoting the company. Viewers could get a strong sense of the culture and even see people eating lunch and having fun together in the office. Beyond this technique, there are many other creative ways to market to potential employees. Call your favorite trade associations to learn how your company can effectively engage with their audiences.
Beef up HR
It's not just their brand names that make Google and Fox Interactive Media extremely successful at recruiting. True, they get inundated with resumes, but they're extremely picky on who they hire. Companies like Google and FIM have very strong HR functions; they don't often use search firms because they have in-house recruiters who are highly capable.
Your company doesn't have to be one of the big boys to utilize this system. Look at hiring just one person who comes directly from executive search in the interactive industry. A credible headhunter should be able to immediately take your HR efforts to the next level.
Partner up
If your company isn't consistently hiring, then you might not need to build a beefy HR machine just yet. Instead, start developing a relationship with an executive search firm. There are some key criteria to consider when choosing your search partner. First of all, make sure they are specialists or have "sweet spots" in the interactive media/marketing space.
Second, get a full understanding of their process (how they engage candidates, interview to determine cultural fit, etc.).
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, be sure you have a good connection with the recruiter. You probably want to hire a candidate you actually like. The same should go for your search consultant.
Practicing any one of these tips should greatly improve your company's recruiting function. If your company is very small or just starting up, it might not be able to afford some of these recommendations. That's totally fine. As long as it practices methods that break the clutter, it can be successful.
Brandon Gutman is director of marketing & business development, Stephen-Bradford Search. Read full bio.