14 “Must-Adopt” Recruiting Techniques for Hiring Millennials By David Spark

http://resources.dice.com/2012/05/23/hiring-millennials-tips/

 

 

It’s a sellers’ market for fresh technology talent. There was a time that the lowest of lowest entry-level positions was all that would be offered. That’s changed. Now being aware that their skills are in high demand, and knowing they can connect with people in many ways beyond just phone and email, today’s crew of young tech workers are more empowered than previous generations.

Listen 2 them!These Millennials (a.k.a. Generation Y), defined as people born anywhere from 1980 to 1999, have access to technology, communications, and publishing that simply wasn’t available decades ago. As a result, they have demands for career and lifestyle that are often different than older generations.

“Employers that better understand what motivates and retains Millennials will be able to secure the top talent, keep them happy and productive and also make sure they are not snatched up by competitors,” said Razor Suleman, founder and chairman of Achievers, in a report by Forbes.

While salary is important to Millennials, it’s often not the primary motivation (source: “Class of 2012” study by Achievers and Experience, Inc).

“Once a salary meets their basic needs, Millennials still desire progression and growth, along with challenging and interesting work that piques their interest,” said Suleman.

To find out what it takes to draw in this highly sought-after community, we asked recruiters and anyone hiring young talent what they believe are the “must-adopt” recruiting techniques for hiring Millennials. Here are our favorite responses:

TIP #1: Engage in social media.

To reach millennials we HAVE to use the channels they’re already using… SOCIAL MEDIA!“Engage with Millennials on the platform they use the most: social networks. By creating and maintaining Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ company profiles, you open the door to new potential employees by giving them an opportunity to easily get to know your company, its products, and services. Also, it provides them a way to interact and network with your company’s employees,” said Kat Krull (@Resunate), Associate Marketing Manager at Resunate.

Richard Dedor (@RichardDedor), Community Manager at VaynerMedia, said that they connect with candidates through “off-the-cuff conversations,” said Dedor. “You have to be there [in social media], and be responsive and engaging.”
TIP #2: Put a real name and face behind the corporate social media accounts

Gen Y? Podcast your jobs!Tip #1 is a requirement for Millennial engagement. And with that requirement comes the need to engage with real people, not corporate identities, said Paul McDonald (@BuildASignHires), Talent Acquisition Manager for BuildASign.com. “[For example,] if you have a corporate Twitter account for hiring, call out explicitly who those followers are interacting with. It makes for a more personal connection, which Millennials appreciate.”

McDonald probably knows what he’s talking about. In the two years he’s been with his firm, he says he’s hired more than 250 employees, most of them Millennials.
TIP #3: Have a “why”

Provide a career path of empowerment, self-discovery and perpetual learning.This catch-all envelops an entire corporate brand, philosophy, and attitude toward staff and others that extends well beyond a paycheck. Ultimately, a Millennial wants to know why they should take this job. How will it help them with their overall goals?

“Millennials need a challenge, a sense of purpose, and also a dash of vanity,” said Justin Sherratt (@justinsherratt), CEO of Gawoop Inc., makers of Sortbox.

“We found one of our best while he was still in university. Part of our offer to him was that we would help him network and move on if/when he outgrew us (advancement). We made it clear that our company helps people get jobs (social good). And we also made sure that we were working with cutting edge systems and software (training). These three combined far outweighed salary and perks at that time,” Sherratt said.
TIP #4: Make sure your website and social identities are up to date

Get visual with your job descriptionsOne of the old maxims of job searching is “make sure your resume is up to date.” The same holds true for organizations looking to attract talent at any and all times. If your company plans to have a blog and be on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, then you need to keep them and your corporate website up to date.

“You don’t, as the employer, need to be everywhere they might expect, but at least show that you’re up to date and connected in their stream,” said Ian McAllister (@ianrmcallister), founder and professional CV writer at CV4.biz.

Nothing screams “we don’t care about our company” than a blog that hasn’t been updated in a year or a Twitter stream that doesn’t even have a personalized Twitter avatar. If you can’t demonstrate that you care, how can you expect a potential new employee to care?
TIP #5: Keep selling your company and follow up

Make sure your candidate has an amazing uxperience. One of the best recruiting resources is word of mouth.“The old mantra that the company holds all the cards in the employment landscape is rapidly deteriorating,” said Samuel Barnes (@Samuel_Barnes), Director of Talent Acquisition for ZanderMax Technologies. “We now have a candidate-centric market on our hands, which means that companies must: sell Millennials on why they should join, what their career progression will be, and most importantly, translate how they’ll make an impact on not just the company, but the world.”

All of this company selling has to be done with rapid-fire communications. “Millennials have rarely faced delays in communication or the acquisition of information,” said Stacia Argoudelis (@staciargoudelis), Area Director of Academic Coaching Institute.

Adapt their communication style and respond quickly, or as Barnes warned, even an excellent employment opportunity can “slip through the cracks.”
TIP #6: Be respectful of all recruits, including the ones that didn’t make the cut

Always acknowledge they applied.“It’s particularly important that you maintain good relationships with Millennial recruits – regardless of whether they get the job or not – as they’ll be the first to tell their friends and family about their experience. Make it a good one, and you can turn recruits into recruiters,” said McDonald of BuildASign.

In an experiment, Gerry Crispin (@gerrycrispin), Co-founder of CareerXroads Colloquium, applied for jobs at the 100 of the best companies to work for. Only 32 percent of the companies alerted him when the position was filled. That means 68 percent did nothing. “That’s a bad candidate experience,” said Crispin.

 
TIP #7: Recruiters should expect and prepare for repeat business from Millennials

Listen to what people want. Telecommute, shorter work day, paid time off.Millennials are more project-oriented than they are company-loyal. If they lose interest on their current assignment, they’ll move on to something else. The frequency that Millennials change jobs is both a challenge and an opportunity for recruiters, explained Charles Caro, Executive Director at Rebounders United.

“Recruiters must use more inbound marketing techniques to build long-term relationships and relationship opportunities instead of more traditional outbound marketing techniques,” said Caro.
TIP #8: Build relationships with Millennials before they enter the market

Build a lucrative internship program“Identify the good technical students in their freshman and sophomore years and provide them with summer internships until they graduate,” advised Sandi St. John (@SandiStJohn), Director of Recruiting of Asynchrony Solutions, a division of Schafer. “You may have some additional training or ramp-up time but they will more than likely prefer to take a permanent job at a place they already know. Creating this up-front relationship will ‘secure’ a future hire.”
TIP #9: Live the company brand and culture

Be true to your brand… they’ll see it!Culture, which could be discussed in a book of its own, is critical for Millennials. If your corporate culture is suffering, unfortunately one simple tip in an article isn’t going to change anything.

Regardless, whatever your company brand or culture is, you must “be honest and genuine about the employer brand that you present to them,” said Gaurav Shah (@gauravshah), Group MD & CEO of the DeGroup and CMD and CIO of IndiaSocial Fund. “If the employer doesn’t live up to those presented brand values, they just simply quit. Loyalty comes only with living by those brand promises.”
TIP #10: Show what it’s like to work in your office

Make recruiting the 1st part of onboardingOne way to promote your company brand and culture is to simply show what it’s like to work in your office. You can do that one of two ways:

Invite potential hires to spend time in your office: At Asynchrony, they invite potential candidates to spend anywhere from an hour to half a day just to sit with their developers. It gives them a good idea what the working environment is like, and gets them excited about working there, explained Asynchrony’s St. John.

Shoot a “day in the life” video of your office: Create something very professional like what Rackspace does or hand out Flip cams to hiring managers and ask them to shoot short videos of people doing their job.

A video acts as a first level filter, allowing candidates to pre-interview their potential employer, and that will either repel or attract potential hires to actually apply, said Will Staney (@willstaney), Director of Talent Acquisition for SuccessFactors.

The other bonus of shooting “day in the life” videos is that candidates who watch these videos are far more knowledgeable when they come in for an interview, Staney said. If you ask them what influenced them to apply for the job they often refer to the culture picture that was created by the videos.

 

TIP #11: Accept failure

Project based internships. A win-win! We learn – they learn!Millennials are attracted to entrepreneurial environments that have a culture that accepts failure as part of the learning and innovation process.

Self-identified Millennial Richard Dedor of VaynerMedia said that it’s important to have “a culture where you absolutely believe and buy into the attitude that failure is okay, and we are going to try and try and try. It’s entrepreneurship and control of the future that my generation wants. Give it to them.”

At the Interop conference last year, I spoke with Google’s Vinton Cerf about Google’s culture of accepting failure.

 

TIP #12: Offer flexible work options

Work-flex benefits“Millennials don’t want to fit their lives into an inflexible job,” said Sara Sutton (@flexjobs), CEO of FlexJobs, “They’d much rather have the ability to blend their work and personal lives together in a way that makes sense for them.”

That flexibility can take on many forms such as telecommuting from home, a flexible schedule with non-traditional hours, or a Results Only Work Environment (ROWE).

“Gen Y want to build parallel careers with flexibility to balance ‘the other things’ in their lives. In short, they want what their parents are just now achieving,” said Sahar Andrade (@SaharConsulting), Executive Director of Sahar Consulting.
TIP #13: Offer training in the “cool” offices

SSell a lifestyle, not a job.ince so much IT and development work is location agnostic (hence the popularity of telecommuting) it’s an attractive perk to send employees to the best company office locations for the first one to three months of the job.

“It’s like a ‘study abroad’ program for professionals,” explained Zachary Dearth (@BostonZachD), Recruiting Manager for Randstad Technologies who has found that pitching the ability to work from a client’s international location in Rome is helping to get some of the better talent on board.
TIP #14: Build a community

Showcase opportunities to contribute, connect, and grow!This last tip bookends the very first tip in this article – to actually engage on social channels like Facebook and Twitter. Once you’re comfortable with social engagement, the next big step is to create a community where those interested can have open and frank discussions in a comfortable online/offline space with hiring managers and employees.

“Participants can share applicable news, post openings, offer advice, make introductions, describe company culture, set expectations for the hiring process, and build credible relationships. Once these relationships are established, job seekers have the know-how to make better choices when applying – they have insight into the company and the role they’re applying for,” said Lauren Smith (@Ascendify), Director of Marketing for Ascendify.
CONCLUSION: Millenials want the same things as other generations, but prioritize differently

We don’t focus on hiring Millennials. We focus on hiring people.While we do talk about Millennials being unique and demanding more, overall they truly want the same things as previous generations, said Steve Guine (@SGHRC), Project Staffing Manager at SGHRC. They may just prioritize differently.

“While this group grew up during a time of almost unprecedented technological achievement,” said Guine, “I think what makes this group more special is the fact that they have watched their parents and loved ones in their careers as they grew up and internalized some valuable lessons. This generation will not be married to the firm, as with the previous workforce, but rather spend more time with their family or in pursuits which bring them personal satisfaction. This, I feel, is the reason work-life balance takes center stage, as opposed to money.”

9 Ways HR & Recruiting Technology Will Evolve in Next 4 Years – by Heather Huhman

http://www.tlnt.com/2012/11/01/9-ways-hr-recruiting-technology-will-evolve-in-next-4-years/

Soon enough, we’ll have an idea of what the next four years at the White House will look like.

But technology is a bit harder to predict — and four years can have a dramatic difference in the products and services available for recruiters, HR professionals, and employers.

How will HR and recruiting technology evolve over the next four years?

1. Millennials will dictate evolution in HR Tech

Most of the 10 million Millennials entering the job market during the next three years will expect a far better candidate experience than today’s. This more-demanding “customer” of human resources dictates that HR technology be upgraded to initiate timely candidate interaction and utilize social media as a communication tool. Essentially, rather than the cold shoulder being given candidates now, evolving HR tools will deliver a digital handshake and a virtual smile.

– Mark Babbitt

2. Embrace social media, digital technology, online video hiring

With more and more applicants spending increasing amounts of their online time using social media, HR technology will find new ways to use the social space to find great candidates. Social media will be used to find a larger and more connected talent pool of candidates for companies looking for particular skill sets. While online video will be embraced as a better way to get to know these tech-savvy candidates faster and more personally than the traditional phone screens.

– Josh Tolan,

3. Video & crowdsourcing will impact HR technologies

Because HR is always looking to lower hiring costs, HR technology trends will shift toward techniques that not only work, but also save money. Two dirt cheap techniques that are kicking up the recruitment space are the use of video and crowdsourcing in the recruitment sphere. Video allows employers to explain a lot of information to job seekers in a more engaging format that can also promote their brand. Crowdsourcing is basically a ton of free help in creating and promoting a job. Stay tuned.

– Rob Kelly

4. A shift toward social performance

The talent management industry isn’t currently keeping up with the demands of employees who want user-friendly performance management platforms. Social Performance is slowly seeing adoption across the workforce, and this will continue in the next three years since it’s easy to use and deploy–not only HR, but for every leader and manager–in order to drive autonomy and results. It’s also ideal in meeting the need for HR processes to be continuous, and allows for more informal feedback in real-time.

– Morgan Norman

5. Force HR to grow to a highly strategic organization

HR Technology is making our lives as HR practitioners much more efficient — even in spite of the huge learning curve that most professionals face in adapting to new technology. As HR Tech continues to collect and display metrics, more and more businesses will be able to make strategic business decisions as a result of these findings — not just from C-Level conversations that leave HR out.

– Joey Price

6. Social capabilities integrated into the platforms

When a candidate applies for a position, a HR manager or hiring manager will see the application and their social profiles as an integrated aspect of their application. For example, it will show what company the candidate worked at, the recommendations they received while at that position from his or her LinkedIn profile, recent tweets, and Facebook wall posts.

– Sudy Bharadwaj

7. More advancements in technology, but focus on people will prevail

Technology has an important place in recruiting, but it cannot entirely replace human interaction. Technology will continue to enable quick and cost-effective recruiting through applicant tracking, screening, evaluating, and communicating. Smart hiring managers will use technology to their benefit, but recognize the need for in-person meetings and phone calls to discover who the candidate behind the computer is.

– Michele St. Laurent

8. Technology determining fit will Be critical

The ubiquity of a professional persona and the amount of structured and unstructured data surrounding it has created a massive problem determining signal from noise. The ability to create intelligent applications that leverage these data to quickly determine intent and fit will be critical to the success of any new recruiting technologies, otherwise there can only be incremental improvement to legacy systems.

– Michael A. Morell

9. Employer value proposition, branding will be real recruiting difference

It will become much more like CRM and less tailored to the application of active job seekers. Employer value proposition and branding will be the real difference makers and the technology will evolve to support this. It will enable talent acquisition leaders to engage with a community of talent via multiple channels.

http://www.tlnt.com/2012/11/01/9-ways-hr-recruiting-technology-will-evolve-in-next-4-years/

Recruiting and Hiring Top-Quality Employees

As all employers quickly learn, there’s a world of difference between a worker who’s correctly matched to their job and their organization, and one who is not.

But how do you find and match the right people to the right jobs? By including, in your comprehensive people strategy, a well-structured recruiting and selection program. The key to successfully developing such a program is to follow a proven recruiting process for the positions you need to fill. Resist the temptation to omit steps, because shortcutting the process can shortchange your results. Here’s what you’ll need to do:

 

1. Develop accurate job descriptions. Your first step is to make sure you have an effective job description for each position in your company. Your job descriptions should reflect careful thought as to the roles the individual will fill, the skill sets they’ll need, the personality attributes that are important to completing their tasks, and any relevant experience that would differentiate one applicant from another. This may sound fairly basic, but you’d be surprised at how many small companies fail to develop or maintain updated job descriptions.

2. Compile a “success profile.” In addition to creating job descriptions, it’s important to develop a “success profile” of the ideal employee for key positions in your company that are critical to the execution of your business plan. These might include such positions as team leaders, district managers and salespeople. For example, let’s say you currently have 20 salespeople. Within that group, you have four that are top performers, 12 that are middle-of-the-road and four that aren’t quite making the grade. If you could bump the number of folks in the top group from 20 percent to 33 percent, that could have a dramatic impact on your company’s performance.

To accomplish that goal, you need to profile everyone in the sales group to identify any skills and attributes that are common to the top group but missing from the other groups. Using this information, you’ll be able to develop a profile to help you select the candidates most likely to succeed in that position. Remember, you can’t tell if you’ve found a match if you’re not matching candidates against a specific profile.

3. Draft the ad, describing the position and the key qualifications required. Although some applicants will ignore these requirements and respond regardless, including this information will help you limit the number of unqualified applicants.

4. Post the ad in the mediums most likely to reach your potential job candidates. Of course, the Internet has become the leading venue for posting job openings, but don’t overlook targeted industry publications and local newspapers.

5. Develop a series of phone-screening questions. Compile a list of suitable questions you can ask over the phone to help you quickly identify qualified candidates and eliminate everyone else.

6. Review the resumes you receive and identify your best candidates. Once you post your ad, you’ll start receiving resumes…sometimes many more than you anticipated. Knowing what you’re looking for in terms of experience, education and skills will help you weed through these resumes quickly and identify potential candidates.

7. Screen candidates by phone. Once you’ve narrowed your stack of resumes to a handful of potential applicants, call the candidates and use your phone-screening questions to further narrow the field. Using a consistent set of questions in both this step and your face-to-face interviews will help ensure you’re evaluating candidates equally.

8. Select candidates for assessment. Based on the responses to your phone interviews, select the candidates you feel are best qualified for the next step in the process.

9. Assess your potential candidates for their skills and attributes using a proven assessment tool. A resume and phone interview can only tell you so much about a job applicant, so you’ll need a dependable assessment tool to help you analyze the core behavioral traits and cognitive reasoning speed of your applicants. For example, a good test will provide insights as to whether the individual is conscientious or lackadaisical, introverted or extroverted, agreeable or uncompromising, open to new ideas or close-minded, and emotionally stable or anxious and insecure.

The success profile you created for each position will help you determine which behavioral traits are important for that position. For example, you would expect a successful salesperson to be extroverted. On the other hand, someone filling a clerical position might be more introverted.

These assessment tests can be administered in person or online. Online testing and submission of results can help you determine whether the applicant should be invited for a personal interview.

10. Schedule and conduct candidate interviews. Once you’ve selected candidates based on the previous steps, schedule and conduct the interviews. Use a consistent set of 10 or 12 questions to maintain a structured interview and offer a sound basis for comparing applicants.

11. Select the candidate. Make your selection by matching the best applicant to the profiled job description.

12. Run a background check on the individual to uncover any potential problems not revealed by previous testing and interviews.

13. Make your offer to the candidate. The information you collected during the interview process will provide you with important insights as to starting compensation levels and training needs.

Additional Pre-Recruiting Tips

Before you start the hiring process, determine your strategy relative to how people fit into your organization. What is your process for making sure they’re a good fit with your company’s culture? Decide whether your approach to the cultural question should include a second interview. Also, who else, if anyone, do you involve in the interviews to help make this selection and judge the candidate? Your goal is to have a plan that will help you determine whether you have a qualified applicant who will fit into your company’s culture.
In addition, decide whether you’re going to conduct pre-employment testing. How much is it worth for you to know an individual’s strengths and weaknesses, not just as a hire/don’t hire test, but as a coaching tool to help you determine their training needs and the best approach to maximize the person’s productivity? Pre-employment testing is often overlooked, when it could be a very valuable tool. For example, if you find an applicant who fits the job description and appears to be the person you want to hire, pre-employment testing can help you determine how to work with them more effectively and move them along in your organization.

If you want your business to attract and retain good clients, your comprehensive people strategy must include a recruiting and selection strategy that attracts and retains quality employees. Following a well-thought-out, structured process will help you best match the right people to the right jobs in your company.

Read more: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/76182#ixzz2nDzJi1CD

Strategies of pharma HR: Recruiting and retaining the right talent

Due to increasing competition many employees succumb to the pressure job change at regular intervals. It is important for a company to spot the problem and find solutions to ensure that they can retain their employees. We discuss the various challenges faced by employees and also the retention strategies adopted by various pharma companies.

Being happy and satisfied at work is a rare combination. For the employee, it not only gives the feeling of being worthy but also helps him/her give their best to the company. However, there are a few problems being faced by employees today in terms of compensation, a healthy work environment, a support team and many more that ultimately lead to attrition. Being a highly organised and knowledgeoriented industry, pharma sector requires employees who are highly skilled and talented; the loss of an employee may affect the company negatively.
Core of the problem
As globalisation has kicked in and a number of MNCs have entered the Indian pharmaceutical industry space, resulting in increased exposure for the employee. This in turn has increased the expectation an employee has from an organisation. Due to these expectations, a number of issues have come to the surface. “Though there is ample skill available in the market, the sole problem of finding the right candidate for the right job still remains. Pharmaceutical companies today are not able to find the best candidate for their positions due to the same reason,” informs D G Rajarshi, Managing Consultant, Pharma Resource.
The production or R&D experience required for one company may not be the same everywhere, and hence, it is important that the candidate is extremely specialised in his/ her field. Due to which it is also important that recruitment is done after a close look at the candidate’s profile.
Inspite of being aware of this a number of companies rush through the process of recruiting a fresher. “At the entry level, companies are in a hurry to recruit people as they believe they can train the employee as per their requirements, so whichever is the quickest recruitment they go ahead with that. But in my opinion the entry level recruitment is the most crucial of the lot. As the employee is a beginner it is important to ensure that the candidate is hired for a department he/she has an inclination towards; only then will they be in a position to produce the desired results. Today, manpower is available and India is churning up a lot of qualified graduates, but the required importance to technical skill is not given; the focus should be technical skills and not soft skills. It is only when the outlook towards this changes, will the entry level problems wash away,” explains Rajarshi.
One of the topmost problems being faced besides entry level recruitment is the increasing attrition rate. Several factors aid to this; right from the work environment, promotional avenues, compensation, etc. Another factor is redundancy; with fast developing technology even the most experienced people in the industry are overpowered by the feeling of being redundant as they do not have access to the latest upgradation programs and lack training. “The work environment also plays a major role. The work environment of a company depends on the culture of the particular company, which varies from one company to the other. It is found that most of the new recruits tend to compare the work culture of the current company with that of their previous one. As no two companies can be the same; there is always a difference and this comparison forces people to get into a shell and not produce the desired results, or sometimes even think of a job change,” says Rajarshi.
Also, companies in the pharmaceutical sector do not involve the family as much as the other industries do. Motivation from within the home is very poor. “A few challenges are also being faced in terms of sourcing profiles for unique positions, ie, bio analytical, FDA auditing skills, lack of good communication skills, lack of domain knowledge, frequent job changes by candidates – low on employer stickiness and absorbent salary expectations at senior levels and more offer drops,” informs Suresh Anubolu, Chief Human Resources Officer, GVK BIO. Though these factors play a vital role in making an employee leave an organisation, there are various ways in which these can be worked upon and exits can be restricted.

 

http://modernpharma.in/specials/hr-in-pharma/strategies-of-pharma-hr-recruiting-and-retaining-the-right-talent/940.html

How to Fight the Skilled Worker Shortage [Top 4 Tips]

Taken at face value, there’s no shortage of people that you can employ. Headlines regularly bombard unsuspecting readers with statistics that suggest the UK is facing high unemployment rates and you would be forgiven for thinking that this means employers can very easily pick and chose who they recruit with very little effort.

I’ve seen intelligent and respectable business owners writing off the unemployed as lazy when they’ve seen their vacancies for highly specialised roles unanswered for long periods of time, but the truth of the matter is that you might actually have a much smaller pool of people you can draw from than you might expect. The roles you are trying to fill may be more of a niche than you think and there has always been a shortage of skilled and experienced workers. Our modern climate is no real exception.

Here are a few things that you can do to fight against the skilled worker shortage:
1. Give People the Chance to Prove Themselves

There will be people out there that will be revolutionary at the job you’re advertising but you will be reluctant to give them a chance because they either lack the recommended qualifications for the role or more likely they lack that coveted five years of prior experience that you’re demanding.

Speaking as someone who has been on the wrong side of the experience equation, there are people who would be more than capable of doing your advertised role, but you need to give them a break. There’s a risk that you’ll get someone incompetent or inappropriate, but essentially there’s the same risk when only accepting the most experienced candidates. You never really know what someone will be like until you give them a try for a week or two, so don’t be afraid of taking the occasional risk if you’re struggling.

2. Demand Less

It’s tempting to demand a lot from your applicants. Requiring extensive prior experience and lots of qualifications tends to be a safer bet on paper, but many job listings end up with outrageous demands that are far in excess of what is actually needed. I was nearly put off applying for a very straight forward administration role several years ago that demanded an extensive knowledge of Microsoft Access, but the role only really needed you to be able to recognise the program’s icon on the desktop.

If you are recruiting in a field where there might be a smaller talent pool, then downgrading some of the things on your list from requirements to “nice to haves” might yield a greater response. You might be surprised by what some people consider themselves to be not very good at when it comes to their skills and you might find yourself with an absolute genius that simply lacks confidence. Before you snap back with a declaration that you want people with confidence, just remember that confidence does not always equal competence. A few more humble employees might in actual fact be exactly what you need and high demands will attract an equal number of blaggards as it will ideal applicants.

3. Search in Similar Industries

Think about asking for applicants in fields that are similar to yours and for people who might have transferable skills and may not even be looking for you in particular. Unless you have a big brand name behind your company, not many people will know you exist and there will be people appropriate for your vacant role working in industries that you don’t operate in that might be interested.

In our modern age, people jump careers all the time and transfer from role to role on a regular basis. Some transitions might seem outrageous in principle, but the skills might be the same. It might also be that people simply want a change and have a completely justifiable skill set to do so.

This almost goes back to the prior experience example – just because someone hasn’t had five plus years experience in your particular industry, it doesn’t mean they’ll be clueless morons driving your company into the ground.

4. Plan Ahead
By: Eric Cuthbert
It pays to keep a very close eye on who is out there and employable at all times if you might struggle to fill any of your roles. I’ve heard rumours that a lot of companies that are recruiting at any one time don’t actually have any roles to fill and are just trying to find out who might be available at any one point, although this sounds suspiciously like a conspiracy theory passed around the frustrated and unemployed.

You might not have the resources or budget to do anything as extravagant as this, but you can still keep an eye on the job market to see if similar roles to the ones you might need are coming up and being filled on a regular basis.

Your staff can announce that they are leaving at any time. Although some roles might have a longer notice period than others, losing a key member of staff in a key area can be a nightmare if you’re unprepared.

Conclusion

Good employees can be hard to find, but there are plenty of smart adaptable people out there looking for work, either with jobs already or unattached to any other company. Maybe set your sights a little lower and have a little more faith in the talent pool, but whatever you do don’t give up hope – the ideal applicant for you does exist.

http://theundercoverrecruiter.com/fight-skilled-worker-shortage/

How Big Data Is Playing Recruiter for Specialized Workers by MATT RICHTEL

Jim Wilson/The New York Times
“The traditional markers people use for hiring can be wrong, profoundly wrong,” says Vivienne Ming, the chief scientist at Gild since late last year.
That someone was Luca Bonmassar. He had discovered Mr. Dominguez by using a technology that raises important questions about how people are recruited and hired, and whether great talent is being overlooked along the way. The concept is to focus less than recruiters might on traditional talent markers — a degree from M.I.T., a previous job at Google, a recommendation from a friend or colleague — and more on simple notions: How well does the person perform? What can the person do? And can it be quantified?

The technology is the product of Gild, the 18-month-old start-up company of which Mr. Bonmassar is a co-founder. His is one of a handful of young businesses aiming to automate the discovery of talented programmers — a group that is in enormous demand. These efforts fall in the category of Big Data, using computers to gather and crunch all kinds of information to perform many tasks, whether recommending books, putting targeted ads onto Web sites or predicting health care outcomes or stock prices.

Of late, growing numbers of academics and entrepreneurs are applying Big Data to human resources and the search for talent, creating a field called work-force science. Gild is trying to see whether these technologies can also be used to predict how well a programmer will perform in a job. The company scours the Internet for clues: Is his or her code well-regarded by other programmers? Does it get reused? How does the programmer communicate ideas? How does he or she relate on social media sites?

Gild’s method is very much in its infancy, an unproven twinkle of an idea. There is healthy skepticism about this idea, but also excitement, especially in industries where good talent can be hard to find.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/technology/how-big-data-is-playing-recruiter-for-specialized-workers.html?_r=2&

Using social media to recruit workers

How I Find and Hire the World’s Best Employees by Joe Reynolds

http://www.inc.com/joe-reynolds/how-to-recruit-and-hire-the-worlds-best-employees.html

A five-piece mariachi band, a cake with a hidden message, and more food than you’d believe, were all delivered to our office—resume in tow—in an attempt to help an applicant stand out from the other 2,000 monthly hopefuls who apply for a job here. People do crazy things like this because they, with all their hearts, want to work at Red Frog Events.

It’s no secret that great people build great companies, so it’s baffling to me that more companies don’t treat recruitment as the single most important department. Red Frog has treated it this way from day one with spectacular results: We currently hire just one out of every 750 applicants.

How to attract great applicants:

Positive work culture. It’s flat-out fun working at Red Frog. I work with 130 of the nicest, smartest, and most fun people I’ve ever met. The pure fun and excitement of an ordinary Red Frog day never gets old. New recruits notice.
Incredible benefits. Our benefits package includes unlimited vacation days (see Give Your Employees Unlimited Vacation Days), a sabbatical every five years, a 10 percent 401k match with no vesting schedule and many more great perks.
Office environment. We have an award-winning camp-themed office environment that includes a tree house (see Your Employees Need a Treehouse), zip-line and rock-climbing wall, among many other fun surprises. It makes coming to work exciting.
Heavy recruitment. We could simply let the applicants come to us, but we don’t. Long lines and raw excitement to meet the Red Frog crew at nearly every job fair within six hours of Chicago is the norm.

http://www.inc.com/joe-reynolds/how-to-recruit-and-hire-the-worlds-best-employees.html