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Develop a Marketing
Plan to Recruit Employees
by: Carolyn B. Thompson
How effectively your company markets itself determines
its level of success. Most companies develop a plan to market their products
and services to their external customers. But what about a marketing plan
for potential internal customers? In order for companies to grow and prosper
in today’s economy, they must engage every day in activities that promote
their business to ALL of their customers.
Your company can grow and prosper with the right
employees without a huge amount of recruiting costs. To do this, you’ll need
a Recruitment Plan— just like a marketing plan—but this is marketing to
potential employees! The first step in developing and using a Recruitment
Plan is to target your market – applicants. When you and your
employees take the first step and complete the exercise outlined here, you
will immediately become more effective at marketing to those prospective
internal customers. Involve as many of your current employees as possible to
get the best results. Ask and record the
answers to the following questions:
What does our company do?
When one of your employees is asked: "What do you do?"
or "Who do you work for?", they immediately become engaged in a potential
recruiting conversation. Because of this, it is important to define what it
is your company does in terms that sound exciting. Be creative.
Do you work for a company that manufactures a product, or do you work for an
organization that provides an essential service to people? Which would sound
more appealing to a potential employee?
What makes us attractive to potential employees?
Ask your employees the following
questions to stimulate the discussion: "Why would someone want to work
here?" "Why did you come to work here?" "Why do you stay?"
Who are our potential employees?
Could they be young, old, students,
veterans, people with disabilities, teachers, salespeople, accountants,
etc.? Think about what walks of life your successful employees have come
from. Once you identify who your potential employees are, ask: "Where would
we find them?"
What do employees value and need?
Ask your current employees what is
important to them about their position and what is important to them about
working for your company. These questions will reveal their values and needs
which apply to successful future employees too.
What are 10 benefits to them of
working with us?
When your employees talk about
"work" with potential employees, they should have an inventory of things to
discuss beyond whether they like it or not. When you develop this list of
benefits, it will serve two purposes. Number one, it will give existing
employees something specific to discuss when they are talking with a
potential employee. Number two, existing employees will get a shot of
motivation, because it will remind them why they enjoy working with your
company.
Who is our competition?
You have competition from companies
who have proactive employee recruiting programs. Because everyone should be
involved in recruiting new employees, all of your existing employees should
know who the competition is and what they do well to attract employees. Who
knows, you could develop a relationship with the competition so they would
send potential employees to you when they don’t have a position for them!
Carolyn B. Thompson is the
President of Training
Systems, Inc., a
customized training and HR consulting company that helps small and medium
sized organizations enhance their ability to recruit, inspire and retain
quality employees and improve performance through training.
Training Systems, Inc. also
provides training design and delivery services to training companies and the
training departments of large companies, and professional and trade
associations. Carolyn B. Thompson is an experienced trainer and consultant
knowledgeable in the challenging area of employee recruitment, inspiration
and retention. She is an exciting, inspirational trainer who leads people to
learn. She has written articles for prominent magazines, has been
interviewed for Chicago’s TV Channel 26, the "You’re Hired" radio show,
Safety & Health, Small Business Computing, Business Week,
Working Woman, Redbook and Inc. magazines, been the
subject of articles in the Daily Southtown, Will County Business
Journal, and Star newspapers, as well as written chapters in
several books. In addition, Carolyn produced a two-tape audio cassette set
entitled "Straight Talk for Employers", and the worksheet, Ten
Steps to Determining the Return on Your Training Investment. She’s
written and published a book entitled "Creating Highly Interactive
Training Quickly and Effectively" (which has more information on making
money while training), is currently writing a book about on-the-job
training, and co-authoring another book about using biblical principles to
manage employees.
Carolyn B. Thompson Reprint
Rights
Training Systems, Inc. 783 Words
221 Vermont Road
Frankfort, IL 60423
815-469-1162
©Training Systems, Inc.
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