Recruiting
Talent
This
has been a crazy week with my Junior League project starting up and The Ribbon
Walk for Cancer happening. I’ve been trying to fit in homework when I can.
Classes are still going well, I think. My most recent one – Talent Management –
is very interesting to me. It deals a lot with the HR topics that prompted me
to start the degree in the first place, namely how does a company keep the good
employees they have?
This
week we are discussing recruiting talent – do employee referrals work, how do
we recruit particular kinds of workers, interesting stuff!
Employee
Referrals
First,
I do believe employee referrals work and can be an excellent recruiting source.
Who better understands the skills required in a position than those that are
currently performing those duties? Perhaps your staff has worked with someone
at another organization that would be a perfect fit for your company. If the
business were mine, I’d absolutely want to hear about it!
I
have seen unsuccessful referral programs, however, where people recommend
others just to get the reward, so I feel there must be some stipulations in
place regarding how long the candidate stays in the organization…things like
that.
I
would definitely refer people I know for jobs at the hospital I work for. Well,
in most departments, anyway. The only things that would keep me from referring
someone were if I thought they were a good worker, but somewhat unreliable or
if there were management problems, or employee satisfaction in the department
or unit. I would never recommend a person apply for a job if I thought they
would be miserable once they got there.
Job Seekers
There are
three categories of applicants for any particular job: new entrants to the
workforce, the unemployed and those who are currently employed elsewhere. Each
of these three categories behaves a little differently and therefore must be
recruited slightly differently, in my opinion.
New
entrants to the workforce come on the job full of enthusiasm, but they don’t
always know what is expected of them or how to perform in a given task. School
partnerships and social media are a good way to recruit these employees.
Those that
are currently unemployed and actively seeking employment are eager to please
and ready to work. I would recommend recruiting these employees through posting
on job boards like Monster.com and also by going through employment agencies.
It can be
trickier hiring those that are currently employed elsewhere. They may be
experiencing job dissatisfaction, which may make them wary about jumping into
another bad situation. Also, they are most likely financially solvent and can
afford to be a little more choosy when selecting a place of employment. To hire
from this category, I would also use job boards, but I would also use employee
referrals and possibly headhunters for hard to fill positions.
A Prime
Example
One company
that I think does a fine job of recruiting talent is Apple, Inc. Apple has a
reputation as hiring the most innovative and creative staff around. They hire
the best so they can remain the best. Talk about hiring talent to maintain high
performance! In addition to their reputation, which, believe me, is a
recruitment strategy unto itself, they also uploaded a fabulous video onto
their website.
The Apple
recruitment video gives a exclusive 4-minute peek at what it is like to work at
Apple Headquarters. It is inspiring and revealing and has me wishing I had
majored in Engineering so I could work for them. I think videos are a great way
to recruit employees, as it does provide a look into the work environment. That
can make people feel welcome and inspire them to apply (Gurman).
Apple also
spends a lot of effort on recruiting applicants away from competitors. Former
CEO, Steve Jobs, himself has even been known to get involved in the recruitment
process (Sullivan). Recruiting top talent away from their competitors is very
smart for Apple. It ensures that they not only remain strong with highly
skilled employees, but it weakens their competitors by leaving them with the
employees who are less then stellar.
But Apple’s
main recruitment strategy is simply their brand image. They are known as being
the best. They are known for hiring the best. Who wouldn’t want to work for the
best?
Maybe I
should’ve gone after that engineering degree after all…
References
Sullivan, J. (2011). Talent Management Lessons From Apple… A Case
Study of the World’s Most Valuable Firm. As retrieved from: http://www.ere.net/2011/09/26/talent-management-lessons-from-apple…-a-case-study-of-the-worlds-most-valuable-firm-part-3-of-4/
