Hiring People_ Recruit and Keep the Brightest Stars - Kathy Shwiff [4]
On the other hand, the Internet has become a major recruiting channel: The same study revealed that three-quarters of people under 35 and people with higher incomes use the Internet. The Web is home to a fast-proliferating number of job boards, including sprawling sites with thousands of listings, and niche job boards aimed at particular segments of job hunters.
If you are seeking talented young candidates, online advertising is quick and easy. Many job boards require nothing more of you than an e-mail address and an Internet connection. Local and national resume databases offer a huge pool of candidates. Because space is not as tight as it is for print ads, you have room to talk up the benefits of the job or aspects of your company’s culture that might appeal to job-seekers. Major career boards also work to ensure that the database is up to date and offer profiles of candidates actively looking for positions.
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Outside the Box
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BUILDING DIVERSITY
“You can’t build a great company without great people, and great people are not just white, straight men aged 25 to 40,” Joe Gregory, president of Lehman Brothers, told the New York Times. To build a diverse work force that brings a variety of points of view to the problems of your business, consider doing the following:
Advertise in publications read by the individuals you want to attract.
If you use a recruiter, let the recruiter know you are interested in building a diverse workforce.
Create employee groups for women, gays, and racial and ethnic minorities to signal your company’s interest in minorities.
Look for clues to a person’s minority status in a resume. These include academic connections, professional activities, and civic or employment-related committees that are minority-related.
SOURCE: “The Fork in the Road” by Jenny Anderson, New York Times (August 6, 2006).
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“Talent: Attract it. Nurture it. Mentor it. Reward it. Create the context in which it can thrive.”
—Thomas J. Peters, coauthor of In Search of Excellence
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In addition, database management tools such as PCRecruiter, Resume Direct, and Black Dog Recruiting allow you to track where you are in the hiring process. Check online under keywords “database management, hiring and recruiting” for a list of current software products to help you manage your recruiting process.
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CASE FILE
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HIRING FROM WITHIN
It’s not every CEO who mixes with the rank and file—and likes it—but Tony Fernandes does just that. The visionary founder of AirAsia, Asia’s first low-cost carrier, Fernandes insists his most satisfying experiences as a manager are when he can “get close to the operation.” Whether it’s carrying bags with the luggage handlers or helping out at the check-in counter, he places a premium on getting to know his staff. He recently opened a cadet pilot program to all his employees, many of whom, he felt, “had the brains but just didn’t have the money to get an education.” When the first group of cadets graduated, 11 out of 19 came from within the company, something the other employees certainly noted. Fernandes said, “There was one kid who joined us to carry bags, and 18 months later he was a First Officer of a 737. Can you imagine what that does for the motivation in the company? Everyone talks about developing human capital, but we did it.”
SOURCE: “Changing Top Down Culture Among Managers in Asia” by Cris Prystay, CareerJournal.com (May 30, 2006).
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Print and Electronic Options
When developing an advertising program for recruiting, your goal should be to attract the most qualified candidates for the money you have to spend. In this light, Internet advertising is very appealing. Job postings on the Internet and online resume database searches cost considerably less than newspaper ads and the services of staffing or recruiting firms. As job sites compete with one another, the price