Being creative and disruptive.

October 20, 2011 at 2:36 PM

Being creative and disruptive.

When you go to market what will your chosen method of recruitment say about you? If you are targeting outstanding candidates you need to be slightly different and disruptive in approach and you also need to be totally well prepared. As recruiters we often represent the front line in attracting, recruiting, and closing top talent for our clients. Merely screening skills and hustling the close is not how it’s done when you're dealing with top performers. These people are seeking advice and counsel before they decide, and recruiters are well-positioned to provide this. In order to do so it is important we are given access to key decision makers and gain thorough information about the company. The first approach is critical and has to be done well.

We have recently had excellent success making a series of short job interview videos with our clients which break down the role, person and role we are recruiting for. Making an approach which is a little bit different like this meant take up by candidates who have been offered vidoes as well as job descriptions has been higher .We have also found candidates more pre sold on the companies before meeting the hiring managers and more comfortable about meeting someone they have already seen on screen. I can’t say all managers enjoy talking to the cameras but I expect to see this medium used increasingly, so consider getting a good quality video made that you can send to select candidates or post on your careers page.

Stand out a little from the crowd and think latterly about methods you can use to attract people. Hard Rock Café recently ran a highly successful campaign that was conducted entirely via a Facebook fan page with a few other on-line tools over a 4 week period. The project had 2 objectives:1: To create a buzz around the opening of the new Hard Rock Cafe in Firenze 2: To recruit 120 staff in 8 categories from waiting staff to accounting. The Facebook campaign attracted10,222 fans on the page. (In 4 weeks!) : 4000 job applications were received. During a 2 week campaign 600 interviews were coordinated via eventbrite and completed over 3 days : The full 120 Hires were made.