The best recruits are within your reach
What if I told you that the best person for your job vacancy is already within reach? It’s true. Most of the time the ideal job candidate is in your network, or your staff's.
Your staff know your organisational culture so they have an idea of who would be a good fit. They know the work you do and likely have a fair understanding of what the job involves.
How to flush these fantastic people out? One approach is to pour money on the problem. You could shift the money you’d spend on a recruitment agency to work on it internally or treat it like a campaign
#1. Make it someone’s project/campaign
Seriously. Clear space in one of your staff’s workload and ask them to develop an outreach plan. Do a presentation to the whole staff, to engage people in thinking about who to approach in their networks. Don’t forget to include contractors, remote workers and volunteers. You could offer a bonus to staff who recommend shortlisted candidates (how many thousands would you have otherwise paid to a recruiter!).
#2. Get it out there
Get specific about the key criteria for your vacancy and find ways to proactively mine your extended networks for candidates.
Email your marketing people and see if they have any ideas for how to get the word out. Put an ad out on your organisation’s Facebook page (the people who follow your cause are likely to want to work for an organisation like you!) and do a paid boost to increase your reach. Ask your staff if they’d share it to their personal facebook pages too.
In his book, What colour is your parachute, Richard Bolles points out that the preferred way of hiring is to promote someone from within the organisation or shift them across departments. Next on his list is hiring someone who brings proof of what they can achieve, then hiring someone recommended by a trusted colleague or friend. Followed by hiring from resume’s on file and then, and only then, placing a paid advert on a job board to get CVs in the door (it doesn’t bode well for Do Good Jobs, but hey, we know it’s the reality!).
#3. Utilise your own personal networks.
Get posts out on your personal Linked In, Facebook and Instagram accounts. Write a snappy post with the role’s title and key points you’re looking for and put it up on your social media accounts with an awesome photo making your organisation irresistible. Set it to public and let it fly. People like the more personal touch and seeing a job vacancy put up by an actual person, rather than under the organisation’s social accounts, makes it more accessible. Social media is free and the best way to get the word out. Make the most of it.
#4. Pinpoint the connectors
One piece of advice I have always found useful is to pinpoint what my colleague calls ‘the connectors’ in your network. Connectors are people with a treasure trove of, yup, you guessed it, connections. They’re born networkers and the ideal people to hit up for ideas of who to approach about applying for the position. Don’t be shy to contact folks out of the blue, it’s flattering to be approached about applying for a job and they may have other recommendations of who would be good for the role if the timing isn’t right for them.
#5. Advertise
Advertising the position still has a place, and is still a good idea for a few reasons. 1) it gets your organisation’s name out there and builds your public profile, especially if you have the job vacancy out on social media. 2) you want to stay open to the possibility of an employee coming out of left field. It’s unusual but it does happen. 3) We love to see your ads on Do Good Jobs and believe we can help target your ad to a niche market of people who want to be doing good, so that’s one tick beside an applicant's name already!
#6. Politely poaching
I have one last underutilised strategy for you: if you have trusted contacts at other organisations with people you think might fit, ask their HR person or GM if they know of any good people. Even great employees outgrow their roles. They may not have anywhere to be promoted to within their existing organisation, or perhaps a restructure might be on the cards. It’s worth an ask. Offer the same for them in the future. Use the opportunity to talk as a relationship building exercise. Same goes for tapping your staff for recruiting recommendations, make it fun and a talking point for your team. It’s a win-win situation.
Got any other tips for finding recruits within your reach? What’s worked for you? Share them with us, and also join our Employer Facebook group for more employer related reads like this!
