Your company needs more than a “Post and Pray” approach to your corporate recruitment! To build your talent pipeline, here are four things you need to do today to ensure that your recruitment strategy is focused on the future:
- Workforce Planning
Workforce planning needs to be more than “how many people did we hire last year”? Based on the overall corporate end goals for the next 3 – 5 years, true workforce planning is a collaborative exercise between the executive team and the hiring managers; not a stand-alone exercise in HR.
When you begin with your end goal, it’s easier to look at where your organization is today, compared to where you want to be at the end of your time-period. Clearly define your picture of that end-state. Working with your leadership team to complete a gap analysis will help you determine where the skills and talent you have today may fall short of what you need in the mid-to-longer term. Where can you “make” and where do you “buy” what you need to get you there? This is the basis for developing your other key strategies for talent development and training, succession planning and performance management, as well as recruitment.
- External Research
You don’t want to operate in a bubble or develop such focus, that you approach your industry with tunnel vision. Being open to new ideas and attuned to trends will help you stay as proactive as possible about your talent acquisition. Attend conferences, read books and follow thought leaders on social media. Take some time to research trends and best practices in recruitment. These may all provide great ideas for you to build effective and leading edge recruitment programs.
Do your competitive analysis! It’s always good to know what your competitors are doing — not to duplicate, but to be aware. To know what is different about your company – you need to understand your competitive landscape. Identify what is unique about your EVP.
- Employer Branding
Your employer branding is a long term strategy to attract the best talent. Continue to stay on top of your efforts to ensure that your message is authentic and part of all aspects of life at your company.
Be sure your EVP is clearly defined and that you have segmented your EVP for the different candidate pools you are trying to attract. The aspects of your company that attract a mid-level manager may not be the same things that make it a great place to start a career.
If you haven’t got an Employer Branding strategy – start to develop one today. There are many great tips and tricks on where to start in our past blog posts. Many of the first steps are not labour intensive or even all that expensive – and the strategy will show a strong ROI.
- Build relationships with the future
Not every company has to be present on campus but you should be building relationships, somehow, with the talent of tomorrow. Encourage your staff to bring their kids to work — talk to these kids – engage them. If you have an interesting environment or produce something that kids might like to see – consider class tours. Think about providing a small scholarship to students in a program that is most related to your organization’s specialty. Participate in co-op or intern programs wherever possible.
Stay connected with them through Instagram or Facebook and other social media channels that are targeted to a younger demographic. Be interactive. Ask them for their feedback and thoughts on the future, or hold contests. They could be small initiatives – and only one or two a year, but attuned to the future employees. Ben & Jerry’s #CaptureEuphoria campaign asked their Instagram followers to submit the picture that best captured the enjoyment of eating Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. The winning pictures were used in advertising campaigns with credit going to the original Instagrammer. A simple concept – and the company saw a 22% increase in sales for that period.
Good recruitment strategy has to be a proactive approach to managing your talent pipeline. Knowing what skills and experience your company will need today and in the future is an important part of developing your most important resource. Keep your strategy future-facing!