Here are some alternative recruitment options that companies have used to hire qualified people:
- Hire the unexpected.
For example, Internet-service provider Netscape once hired three students from Berkeley who pointed out a software implementation error to the company. Explained the vice president of HR, “the people who hack into our system know something that we don’t, and we can learn from them.”
- Train them yourself.
In order to remedy a shortage of machinists, printing equipment company Max Daetwyler Corporation created an apprenticeship program at a local high school. Students began working at the company part-time during their senior year of high school, then continued full time while they attended college classes at the company’s expense. The students earned associate’s degrees in manufacturing engineering technology, and the company earned a supply of custom-trained recruits.
- Look in distant places.
The Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee once recruited new employees from Puerto Rico, which had many experienced workers in the hospitality industry, and high unemployment. Using such tools as job fairs and recruiting trips, and offering such perks as temporary employee housing, helped fill gaps in the expanding hotel’s employee ranks.
SOURCE: Excerpted from “Creative Staffing Drives Success” by Shannon Peters Talbott, copyright Spring 1996, Personnel Journal (now known as Workforce). All rights reserved.