most important consideration when using a job-posting system is to be fair and consistent. Morale will be reduced dramatically if employees begin to feel that the system is administered in a biased or inconsistent manner.
3.2 Recruiting services
“Recruiting services” is a broad term that refers to personnel agencies, executive recruiters, headhunters, and any other agencies that perform the function of finding, screening, and recommending candidates for a position.
There are some obvious advantages to using recruiting services:
• You are able to take advantage of the agency’s knowledge and contacts for finding qualified job candidates.
• You save the time (and expense) of advertising, screening résumés, and conducting preliminary interviews.
• You are able to keep the name of your company and the fact that you are hiring confidential until you actually begin the interviews.
• You are assured that the people you eventually interview are qualified for the position.
With these important benefits, why don’t more people use recruiting services?
• Unfamiliarity with the use of recruiting services or fear of the unknown.
• Expense — fees can range from 10 to 25 percent of the candidate’s starting salary.
• Personal experience or knowledge of others’ experiences with disreputable agencies.
• Feeling that nobody else could know the type of candidate you are looking for as well as you could.
These drawbacks are very real. Disreputable agencies do exist and fees can be high. If you do decide to use a recruiting agency, follow these guidelines to make the experience as positive as possible:
• Seek recommendations for these service providers. Don’t hesitate to ask the agency itself for references.
• Ask what the costs will be. Be sure to ask about possible hidden fees such as telephone or travel expenses.
• Consider working with more than one agency until you become comfortable with one.
• Establish a relationship and build loyalty with a particular recruiter, not necessarily the agency.
• Be clear and specific about job requirements and candidate specifications.
• Be firm and clear about your expectations of the agency and its services.
3.3 Newspaper and trade journal ads
Advertising in the newspaper or in trade journals is still a common recruiting method for many positions, and one that is familiar to most job seekers. Advertising for job candidates follows the same principles as any other type of advertising — you need to identify your target audience, write an ad that will attract its attention, and provide information that will help audience members determine whether they are qualified for, and interested in, the position you have available.
The function of recruitment advertising is to attract qualified applicants. If your ads are not on target, you are going to fail in your initial efforts at recruitment. You need to know specifically what kind of person you are looking for and be thoroughly familiar with the job requirements and specifications before you develop your ad.
You are most likely to get a large response if you run employment ads in your weekend newspaper, but there are some exceptions. The Wall Street Journal, for instance, runs a special section on Tuesdays devoted to employment advertising. Other papers may also have special days that you should be aware of. You can bet that the job hunters know about them.
Most employment ads are run in the employment section of the classified ads. However, you might also consider running a display ad in another section of the paper. For instance, if you are looking for a manager or supervisor, you might want to run a display ad in the business section. If you are looking for someone for real estate sales, you might advertise in the real estate section of the paper. Some papers have separate career listings in business sections or other sections of the paper for professional and managerial career opportunities.
Be innovative. And remember, there is no reason why you can’t advertise in two or more sections of the same paper, using a combination of approaches.
Another popular means of attracting potential employees is through the use of trade publications that are geared specifically to a certain trade or profession. The one drawback here is that most of these publications are monthly and have long lead times for advertising. You might need to have your ad ready three months in advance before it will even appear in one of these publications.
3.4 Campus recruiting
On-campus recruiting is provided as a service to students by colleges, universities, and technical schools. Many companies are taking advantage of these opportunities to interview prescreened, qualified individuals.
Campus recruiting is an effective way to fill entry-level positions. To find out more about campus recruiting in your area, call the placement offices of the colleges, universities, and technical schools near you.
3.5 Job fairs
Job fairs are becoming an increasingly popular source of job candidates. Generally organized by industry, job fairs are like trade shows that provide employers with the opportunity to meet interested job searchers in a particular field. For instance, a community might sponsor a “small manufacturing” job fair where area manufacturers would be present to provide information on their company and their personnel needs. The job fair would be advertised in the community, drawing those individuals interested in the type of position being represented at the fair.
3.6 Recruitment open houses
While job fairs generally provide a number of employers with the opportunity to meet potential job candidates, holding an open house for your own company provides you with the opportunity to present your job opportunities exclusively to a group of interested job candidates. Recruitment open houses can be a good way to attract a large number of candidates, particularly if you are adding a large number of new positions or are opening a new facility. Advertise your open house through area newspapers and through notices at local universities and technical colleges.
3.7 Recommendations and referrals
At any company there is a proliferation of recommendations and referrals from existing employees. This is certainly a way of adding applicants to your files and, particularly in today’s competitive environment, can be an excellent way to obtain qualified leads.
Many employers view referrals from existing employees as a great source of potential job candidates. Why? They feel that if an employee is willing to go out on a limb to offer the name of someone for employment, that employee is going to have a vested interest in seeing that this person performs well. It is unlikely that an employee will recommend someone who will not be successful on the job.
3.8 Walk-ins and unsolicited résumés
Walk-in
