Not every recruiter can be a hairstylist, accountant or portable sanitation technician. They may know how to hire these roles, but not how to become them. On the flip side, it’s not as hard for every employee in your company to act as a recruiter. In fact, recruiting power in each employee often goes unrealized.
There was an incredible program once developed for a service industry. Every manager in this company went through training to both spot and learn how to engage with potential candidates. A calling card was available to hand out to potential superstar employees, and managers could facilitate an introduction to a recruiter. The candidate would always get a call and the managers received a referral bonus if there was a connection with the candidate — even if they were not hired. The company paid managers for this time, and with a 20% success rate, a fruitful pipeline of high-quality candidates emerged.
With that potential success rate, there’s no reason you wouldn’t want to encourage your team to recruit new workers. Here are a few benefits and tips to help you get started utilizing the knowledge and enthusiasm of your workers to build your portable sanitation crew:
Frontline workers far surpass your post-and-pray method
We know a lot of employers do this — get the generic job ad posted everywhere, then wait. You may get many applications, but most of them are not the right fit or don’t have the right experience. This is not a strategic approach (nor an effective one!). You need to do more than passively wait for people to come to you and investing in your untapped staff’s recruiting potential is a fantastic way to build your pipeline of better candidates.
Your employees have a very clear idea of who they want to work beside
Your crew knows what it takes to be successful at your company. Once they know what roles you’re hiring for, give them tools to help you — train them on how to be a recruiter so everyone is looking for talent that makes the workday, the product, and the customer experience better. Everyone wins when you do this and you all become more excited about the benefit of the team.
Act fast on their recommendations
If you can work fast to meet these candidates the nonrecruiters bring you, they will want to do it more and feel more credible wearing their recruiting hat. You may need to update your processes to be able to move faster to connect with this spotted talent. Don’t make them go through a long process or wonder if you’re going to get back to someone. This will not encourage them to bring you more superstars. Be ready to follow up with every single person the nonrecruiters spot and refer!
Let them recruit on the time clock
Think about the value of giving them one hour away from their day job to find you two more top performers like them. Giving the nonrecruiters time to act as recruiters means paid time, or extra time paid to do this work that is so valuable. Asking people to do work that is not in scope is a terrible experience and does not entice them to say nice things about your brand or the culture. It suggests you don’t value their time! Think about a few hours per week that they can be compensated to call people, go on LinkedIn to ask people if they are interested, or follow up with their professional associations. It will go a long way and help them feel good about helping in this effort.
Show appreciation for their help
Make sure you have a planned approach to show them that you value their effort, and that you are happy to have them helping bring the best people to join you. Develop a plan to give bonuses to workers for bringing in candidates who become successful hires. Recognize their help during staff meetings. They are giving their time and expertise to the process and learning how to be a non-recruiter does take a little bit of investment. Spend your money on a solid program that is easy to work with, giving time and resources to the training, and help your employees develop the skills to look for what you need.
YOU HAVE TO WORK IT
As with all programs, you need every stakeholder to be on board for it to be successful. While you’re investing in great programs and recognition for this stretch role outside of the recruiting team, make sure your office staff or the people who usually look for workers are on board with the plans. They are the best teachers and advocates to help make this a success, but they can also derail your efforts mightily.
Don’t let those already paid to recruit new workers get territorial with their efforts. It’s critical that they understand the goal is not to replace them, or that their work is not valued. This is a way to scale the recruiting function and have the best people possible helping fill each open role on your team. If everyone can come to work with the mindset that it is part of everyone’s job to attract the best talent, everyone wins!
