RECRUITING TIPS YOU MAY NOT BE USING * Contact and/or obtain the name and fax number of all: o Churches o Athletic clubs or organizations o YMCAs / YWCAs o Trade Schools o Juvenile centers o Minority or ethnic organizations (NAACP, LULAC, Mexican-Italian-Irish-Polish/ American leagues etc) o Urban League o Women organizations o Gyms and/or health centers o Community colleges o Home Owners Associations o County and Municipal community health and/or social service centers o Elderly centers (for members, their children and grandchildren) o Financial aid offices o Welfare offices o Social Security offices Create an attractive, professional looking flyer on an 81/2 X 11 sheet. Ideally add graphics, even a cartoon character or icon enhances the appearance. Don?t fill the sheet but leave lots of blank space. Highlight the advantages of your company, the work, the atmosphere, the professional team relationship, the potential, training and opportunity. Describe the position with respect. You won?t sell the job with the flyer, but you can entice them to take the next step. Be sure all contact methods are included. Include name, address, phone number, fax number and website. Every time you have an opening send a fax of the job opening(s) to all those contacts. If you cannot obtain the fax numbers, then call each and request it. Tell them you?re including them in your job and career openings bulletins. * Send a more formal announcement such as your letterhead or a preprinted card to every customer (or potential customer). Announce the openings to them. They have retired husbands, sons, daughters, unemployed brother-in-laws, out of work/school nephews, neighbors, churches friends etc. People like to be the source of such things as a good job. This is not only an excellent recruiting source but it tells your customers and the world that you?re so successful that you?re expanding and you need more good people. * Contact the nearest branch of the AARP. (American Association of Retired People). People are retiring in their 50s and 60s healthy and with supporting incomes and health coverage, who are fully capable of working, and have usable skills, knowledge and good work habits. They often just want to supplement their income. * Connect to a company that needs people in the season that you do not. If you?re Summer, identify who in your area hires Winter. Work out an arrangement whereby as you need them less, they can go directly to your associate. This makes year round employment for the employee and a more assured team next season. * Set up a job fair. This can be an event wherein you notify all the contacts in number one above, an ad in the newspapers, particularly the small local journals and flyers. Free hot dogs, raffle some prizes, show industry films, have job demonstrations, plant and equipment displays and include certified and professional team members who describe the job and the opportunities. Pay one hour pay to everyone completing an application and interview. Provide a tour of your site or a customer?s completed project. Invite the local newspaper and ask them to do a story. Have applications and interviewers on site. * Visit the State Employment office in your area. You might have to go to the nearest larger city. Explain your work and ask them what you can do for them and ask what they can do to help prescreen candidates for you. All workers who accept unemployment benefits are required to seek and accept work if they are reasonably qualified. You are providing that resource. In some communities the State Employment Service is not very active or helpful. But if you have a good one in your area, they can actually become a significant source for your job candidates. * Contact the retired police and firefighters clubs. That club may be a union hall. Many of them seek supplemental income or jobs immediately or soon after retirement. They often like horticultural and outdoor work. * Find someone who knows government municipal, state or federal employees who have retired. They often belong to clubs. Contact them or at least send them job notices and/or industry brochures. * Contact handicap or disability organizations. Many handicapped people are fully capable of doing your job. Sometimes a reasonable accommodation on your part can bring you an employee(s) who will be loyal and grateful to have the opportunity. * Consider an ex-offender program. The state usually provides support and/or assistance in the employment procedures. They require the person to work regularly, report in and maintain a stable life style. For many it may be their only opportunity to make it. Those who fit in become very loyal and stable employees. You may be their first chance a new life. Several states have active ex-offender programs. * Consider Offender Release programs. Incarcerated people with acceptable histories are given an opportunity to cut short their sentences if they become solidly employed. They have full monitoring and counseling provided to make their new life successful. If they fail to work regularly or get into trouble they must return to finish their original sentences. This program, if it fits your company, can become an important and valuable asset for the long run. It has proved so for many companies. * Organize a Job Sharing system. It probably doesn?t work for every job but most companies have positions that can be shared by two or three employees. The people in the job share often do their own scheduling. They have the responsibility to have the job covered at all times. One may work Mondays and Tuesdays, while the other works Wednesdays Thursdays and Fridays. One can also work mornings and the other afternoons. Such time-flex plans are often the key to getting retirees. * Contact military bases in your area. In the 90s, thousands of military people were on welfare and were eager to find local work. The military bases cooperated with employers and rearranged schedules to accommodate their outside jobs. Military people are no longer on welfare, but many bases still cooperate for that outside work scheduling. They often need special scheduling but you can find some very talented, disciplined and valuable employees. They also often have their spouses and grown children living their who are also interested in working. Most of these candidates will not become permanent employees. Some will. * Identify all plant closing in your area and even your state. Manufacturing plants are cutting back and closing regularly. Particularly in the North East. The law (WARN act) requires the factories to inform the employees and the local authorities (mayor?s office, employment office etc.) as much as six months in advance before closing. You can contact those plants or those local authorities and gain their help in screening, interviewing and even training. In many cases you, as the employer, can acquire significant tax breaks and training funds if you hire these people. * Contact your local Department of Labor office and ask for information on job training programs such as the original Job Corp type federal programs. These programs can not only refer semi-trained workers but also allow tax breaks and training funds. * Find blighted areas in nearby states where unemployment is high. (West Virginia is an example). Invest the money into relocating unemployed workers to your area. Their will often be services available to aid you and the candidates in this process. There will also be community services in your area that can offer aid or assistance during the relocation and subsistence process. * Many other companies (not in your industry) hire the same type of people that you do. What do they offer? What are their job conditions? What problems do those workers, or that company have that can be resolved by coming to you? Place flyers in the local establishments in that area. Advertise in a local journal read by those people. * Put up a flyer near the union hiring halls for construction workers. These are often seasonal jobs. Many of those workers want to have better, safer work even if it?s not better pay. The Hod Carriers are often viewed as laborers. Many are laborers, but in fact, most are quite highly trained and experienced in almost every kind of construction equipment operation and repair. They know a lot about most types of landscaping. * Visit your state?s website. Look in the Dept of Labor or employment section. Almost every state has an employment assistance division and they highlight it on their website. This division helps citizens find jobs, offers training and subsistence for the candidates and referrals for the employer. If you can?t find the site for our state, visit dol.gov. This is the federal Department of Labor (DOL) website. On the lower right hand side you will find ?State Labor Offices?. Select that and it will take you to a selection of links to all state DOLs. * Identify military release centers in your area (if any). Many veterans mustering out are looking for jobs. Visit them, meet the returning vets and/or post one of your flyers. * Networking. Although almost everybody runs an ad for every job they have, most jobs are not filled by ads. Ads are one of the most expensive, least effective recruiting tools we use. In repeated national surveys asking people how they obtained their jobs, about 15% say they got it from a newspaper ad. People find their jobs through other people! A relative, friend, neighbor, another employee, someone on a bus, at a party or someone they just met tells them what they know or what they heard from someone else. Who do the people you want talk to? Who can you talk to to get your story out? Talk to everybody? Tell everyone you know, your husband, your wife, friends, acquaintances, and people in meetings, at parties, on a plane, at a picnic. Not necessarily strong ties, but weak ties work even better. People you know the least talk to people you don?t know at all. Let everyone in your company know about the opening(s). Ask people to pass the word. Networking works! And it works best! Additional Tips: * Offer bonuses to employees who refer another employee who lasts 90 days. * Post all jobs on all bulletin boards. * Sign on Bonuses. * Call back those who turned you down earlier. * Tell each candidate you turn down what he/she can do to qualify next time. Check back later to see if there?s any progress. * Set up a call phone call center that gives job openings and short messages about employment around the clock. Advertise that job hot line number. * Provide transportation (a van) to pick up workers each day. Provide bus or subway passes. * Make an arrangement with a local day care center to help pay for part of the day care costs for employees. Or organize one to be available for employees. * Design career ladders for all jobs showing the opportunity for training and development as steps from their entry-level job to higher positions. Promote this concept to candidates in your advertising. * Learn to screen people in not screen them out. What does it take to make this candidate a good employee? Is it reasonable to consider that he could fit here. * When you have attracted a candidate, find out about his/?her Hot Button. Every candidate has a Hot Button. That key thing that entices or excites this particular person. What is it? Guaranteed weekly salary? The chance to operate equipment? Health benefits? Sign-on bonus? Training up? A job for his wife, son or friend. Cell phone for private use? Driving a company car home? An opportunity to work all winter or to have a job to return to next season? Professional headhunters always seek the Hot Buttons and they push them. * If you, or others you know, have a maid service, give them a copy of your flyer. They, their families or someone they know, may be ready for a step up. Contact < hirevetsfirst.gov > It?s a new site from the Veterans Administration. Enter the site and select < Skills Translator > then enter the DOT job code of the position you are trying to fill. You will be given the comparative military job titles. They will then give you the contact point for the local vets service center to put you in contact with vets.