A New Way of Recruiting for a New World

By James Adonis

Two decades ago, companies stood out from their competitors based on their product differentiation. But the advent of technology meant that it wasn't long before a competitor caught up. One decade ago, companies differentiated themselves by their provision of excellent customer service, but again, it wasn't long before every company was providing the same kind of service.

Now, the world's most competitive companies are those with the most talented employees. These are the same companies that will survive and thrive in the future. To keep up, a whole new way of recruiting has emerged.

Develop a marketing mindset

Your recruitment team does not belong in Human Resources; it belongs in your Marketing department.

There are more jobs available than employees, which means that we need to market to prospective employees in the same way that companies market to customers - by using the Four Ps of Marketing: product, price, place, and promotion.

Product: Are you an 'Employer of Choice'? What are you doing to make sure that your existing employees are engaged, motivated, and developed? Do your current employees tell others how great it is to work for your company? If not, then your 'Product' needs to be the first thing you fix. If your Product isn't right, forget about the rest of the marketing mix until you get this part down-pat.

Price: Are your wages and benefits competitive with the rest of the market? Employees don't expect to be paid the highest; they desire to be paid fairly. And price isn't just monetary. There are many things that employees view as more superior to money, such as: flexibility, work location, the job itself, the people they'll work with, influence in the organisation, potential opportunities, fame, and so on.

Place: Where are you searching for your ideal candidate? We need to move away from the traditional methods of finding employees. Online and paper advertising are the most common methods of recruiting, which means you're competing with a large group of employers amongst a small pool of people. Instead, go where your competitors aren't. Get creative. Be specific about the kind of person you want, and then go to where they hang out. Search for passive job seekers - people that aren't even looking for work but who may be tempted by an amazing offer.

Promotion: These days, employees receive more than just one job offer at the same time. So why should they choose you? Break away from your corporate-speak and start using language that appeals to your desired target market. Use exciting and youthful language when writing ads and job descriptions for Generation Y, and perhaps the opposite if you're looking to recruit a Veteran.

Employee value proposition (EVP)

In its simplest form, an EVP comes down to just one point: why should someone work for your company and no other?

When I help companies to develop their own unique EVP, many suggestions that are put forward by eager managers include: "this is a great place to work", "we have lots of opportunities", and many other statements that are interesting - but not unique. The strongest EVPs, the ones that are the most successful, are those that explicitly and implicitly tell potential employees, "you are are going to get something here that you can't get anywhere else".

So, what's your EVP? If you're like most organisations, you probably don't have one.

When polls are conducted internationally to discover the companies which employees prefer to work with, the Virgin Group comes out on top. This is because Virgin has created an employer brand - an EVP that screams "we are fun, funky, innovative, people-focused, growing, and progressive".

If people started working for Virgin and they found it to be bureaucratic with archaic processes and unapproachable management, they'd have a high rate of staff turnover. Incidentally, they don't, and as a result they have little trouble attracting and retaining talent.

The number one reason why employees resign within the first six months of employment is because their expectations haven't been met. Often, this is due to an EVP that's incongruent with what the culture is really like. Conduct job previews, where employees get a chance to see what the job is really like, and have a frank discussion at the interview stage regarding each party's expectations, and you'll reduce the early termination rate that many companies experience.

Stand out!

One of Australia's biggest banks, St George Bank, recently announced that if you're one of their employees and you're a grandparent, you're entitled to grandparents leave. This is an acknowledgment of the fact that in this day and age, grandparents are increasingly relied upon to look after their grandchildren. In this instance, if you're a Baby Boomer in Australia and you're struggling to handle your family commitments, you'd be crazy to work anywhere else!

As a result of that announcement, St George Bank received an incredible amount of media coverage - which equates to free advertising! Follow their example. Come up with an employee perk that is so outrageous, so "out-there", that it gets you heaps of publicity. Do you think that St George Bank has as much difficulty attracting talented Baby Boomers as their competitors? Unlikely.

Other companies have done this brilliantly as well. Google offers its employees '20-percent time', which means they can work on any project they want for one-fifth of the time they're at work. McDonald's offers its staff in the UK 'family contracts'. The point I'm making is this: these companies have people like me singing their praises all around the world simply because they've done something outstanding for their employees. The result? They get employees wanting to work for them without even needing to advertise.

Hire people you don't need

Finding talented employees is tough these days - you know that. Which is why when you come across someone exceptional, grab them. Even if you haven't got any job vacancies at present, hire them anyway, and give them a project to work on until a suitable job becomes available.

Take flexibility to a new level

Make your company so unbelievably convenient to work for and you'll attract the very best people into your business.

Best Buy is an American company that has initiated 100% flexibility. This means that their employees can work whenever they want, wherever they want, as much as they want. The only measure of performance is... performance. I'm convinced that within five years, every company in the world will need to offer 100% flexibility just to be able to remain competitive. The question is this: will you be a market leader in your industry, or will you be a follower, forced to offer this just because your competitors got in first?

Ex-employees

Stay in contact with your ex-employees. Alumni programs are the key to this.

Progressive companies are realising that by rehiring their ex-employees, known as boomerangs, they save about one-third of the cost of hiring a standard employee. Plus, these employees come back with more experience and lucratively, competitor knowledge.

Stay in touch by sending monthly emails notifying ex-employees of job vacancies, send quarterly newsletters, permit access to a limited intranet, give them a call every six months to see how they're going, invite them to company social events so that they maintain important relationships. After all, employee loyalty to companies is decreasing whereas employee loyalty to their peers is increasing.

The grass isn't always greener on the other side. Take advantage of it.

Interviews

In interviews, it's not just us managers doing the interviewing - we're being interviewed by the candidates as well. So who's doing the interviewing in your company? Use only your most inspirational people and the most successful. In a world where employees are receiving multiple job offers at the same time, the manager you have fronting them and building the initial relationship, can determine whether they say "yes" to your job offer - or someone else's.

At the end of every interview, candidates should leave with a positive impression. They must feel like they'd love to work for your company - but be careful that you don't oversell the role or the organisation.

And real talent doesn't hang around. If you need more than one or two interviews per candidate or if it takes your company forever to make a decision, there's something seriously wrong with your management team's recruiting skills. Interview and recruitment training should be compulsory for every manager who is responsible for selecting the people who eventually work for your company. (Call me!)

The power has shifted from the employer to the worker. With companies now desperately vying and fighting to attract the most talented candidates, the way that we recruit needs to adapt for this volatile climate. The working world has changed forever.

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