Features and tRends

(December 2008)

Cost-Effective Hiring Strategies in a Weak Economy
By Steven Kleber, President and Founder of Kleber & Associates

As budgets tighten and slow economic growth continues, you’re no doubt looking at your company’s bottom line and ways to retain and grow your business’ most important asset—your workforce. With the New Year quickly approaching, it’s best to stay ahead of the curve by implementing lucrative hiring strategies that will grow your talent pool while maximizing your return on your most valuable investment.

Below are five cost-efficient hiring strategies that will prepare you for the year ahead.

1. Reinvigorate the quality hiring process
Take the time to ensure superior hires are being added to your workforce. Bringing the right talent to your team, limits high-turnover rates and helps secure a cohesive group of brand evangelists and an optimized return on your personnel investment. Explore and clearly identify company attributes that will attract a quality workforce and which will add value to the perception of the company and the position you are working to fill. These might include having a sustainability platform for your company that you share with potential new hires, discussing the working culture and environment of your company to identify what is most appealing to a future candidate, and clearly defining the skills and attitudinal attributes you hope to attract. Be sure to be thorough and as candid as possible in the interviewing process by sharing these strategies. And, do check references and read recommendations carefully to evaluate as any potential new hires’ work ethic and professional motivations.

2. Recruit at professional events
Professional development and industry seminars and events are fantastic venues to engage with potential staff members because they provide multiple opportunities for cost-productive direct and word-of-mouth marketing. Industry event recruiting allows you to connect with quality professionals face-to-face who are most likely operating within your same or similar industry or specialization. What’s more as demonstrated by their presence at events that provide enhanced learning, knowledge, training and professional growth the individuals that attend often have the makings of a great team addition.

On a similar note, it’s also great to network with your industry colleagues at these types of events to spread the word about your company and its staffing needs. At the very least, you’ll make some valuable new contacts, solidify industry relationships and potentially gain much desired future employee referrals. In addition, even if you’re not looking to hire when attending a professional event, these venues provide the opportunity to network with future employee prospects that might become assets for you when the time comes to add to your team.

3. Capitalize on referrals
Word-of-mouth marketing and referrals continue to provide high return on the hiring investment because they generally result in the most appropriate candidates coming to your attention. Take advantage of your relationships and connections with industry colleagues, current employees, clients and vendors to get leads for those in the industry who are looking to make a positive move. Offer employee referral incentives to your current talent pool. If you maintain and build your relationships with your industry comrades, they will do some of the recruiting for you. Most importantly, make sure you return the favor!

4. Take advantage of technology
Social media and social networking sites have gained immense popularity over the past few years. As such, they’ve also become a fantastic employee-recruiting tool. Even some of today’s top recruiters claim these new tools are the “best thing to happen to recruiting.”

To leverage today’s ever-changing technology, focus on sites such as MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Friendster, along with your company and employee blog sites. Social media allows you to simultaneously build awareness and branding while engaging in dialogue with top talent and employment prospects. It’s also beneficial to frequently update job openings and opportunities on your company’s website, allowing prospective employees to upload their resumes, apply for job postings online and communicate with you or your HR department instantly.

5. Build partnerships with freelancers and consultants
There are approximately 10.3 million independent contractors in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Utilizing alternative staffing resources via freelancers and consultants is a budget-strapped company’s dream come true. These professionals are typically highly effective and self-motivated; qualities that enable them to make a living being self-employed. In addition to gaining affordable, high-quality talent, the next best part is the potential for lower overhead costs for employee benefits such as health insurance, retirement plans, paid vacation and holiday time.

You may already have relationships with independent freelancers and consultants. If this is not the case, you can recruit independent contractors just as you’d recruit a full-time employee by utilizing today’s latest technology, recruiting at professional events, capitalizing on employee referrals, and implementing a quality hiring and interview process. There’s also a multitude of websites such as guru.com, getafreelancer.com and even Craig’s List that allow you to network with quality independent contractors in a variety of industry specializations.

Have a plan, maximize your ROI
An effective workforce is the heart and soul of any successful business. With 2009 approaching, be proactive in the search for quality and productive additions to your team by implementing cost-efficient, quality hiring strategies to aid in securing top talent while ensuring future business success.

Looking for more information about employee recruiting and retention? Click here.

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