To be effective in today's competitive labor market, your recruiting campaign must be an aggressive and year round effort. That means that all company materials, even sales materials, should be developed with recruiting goals in mind. It is important to communicate in everything your company does that your organization is not just a great provider of goods and services, but also a great place to work.

Regardless of the scale of your campaign, the basic elements of the campaign are the same and the goal is simple: Deliver the most compelling message to the largest concentrations of potential employees in order to draw them into your applicant pool.

Four basic elements of an effective campaign:
1. Unpaid media: News or quasi-news coverage. Develop concrete news stories or events to pitch to editors and reporters by building a list of all the potential angles and events that are newsworthy about your recruiting program. Accompany your news releases with a news packet of supporting materials. Designate a recruiting spokesperson that will have credibility with your target audience. Don't dismiss unconventional tactics such as letters to the editor and calls to phone-in talk shows.

2. Paid media: Advertising. The key to an effective ad in any media is being disciplined about sticking to the message—if you’ve done the market research and developed a powerful message, just say it over and over again. And don’t consider just print advertising. Write a script for a sixty second radio spot, buy a thirty second spot on cable television or place your ad online at a job posting web site.

3. Direct contact: Mail, telephone, fax, email. First, identify and secure available databases with accurate contact information. Second, decide on how many people you’ll need to contact in order to attract the number of applicants you want (try to contact at least 100 times the number of applicants you are seeking). Third, decide on what means of direct contact will be most effective for reaching those people. You can supplement your efforts by paying existing employees a cash bounty for bringing in new recruits (most employers require that new recruits stick around for a period of time before the bounty is paid).

4. Events: Sponsored by you or by someone else. When it comes to planning events, keep in mind two factors: (1) What can you do to make the event special to your target market? (2) What is the potential news/publicity tie-in?
 

CREATING AN EFFECTIVE RECRUITING CAMPAIGN Decide who will be the audience for your message and narrow down your target market. Identify the best means of direct and indirect communication with your target market. Ascertain what resources will be available to run the campaign. Plan and execute the campaign on an ongoing basis.

 

Please visit "Talk About Your Work" on our Web site - a new question every month