Fish Where The Fish Are

Odds are, you likely started your career the hard way. Landing your first job meant filling your briefcase with a dozen or so résumés and pounding the pavement, physically visiting the employers of interest… knowing that, at minimum, you could leave a good impression with someone as you dropped off your CV while hoping that just maybe you could land an interview on the spot.

Then when you got home at the end of the day, you scanned the career postings and the ads in trade journals and newspapers, planning the next day’s route.

About ten years ago the internet job boards became popular… and the classifieds went online. The belief (and the marketing hype) was that once they were universally accessible, the world would rely on those boards to manage their upward mobility.

The problem is, though, that less than 20 % of the workforce is using the conventional job boards. Even fewer read and respond to job ads in print media. More importantly, almost none of the people you want to reach rely on these tools and resources for information.

If you want to attract a large pool of quality candidates, you have to reach them where they are, and not where you used to be when you were looking for work.Here are three thoughts to consider:

Multiple Attraction Strategies
The ‘one strategy and one message fits all’ approach doesn’t work any more. People don’t respond to the glossy career brochures and promises… they expect to be engaged in an experience and a conversation that is compelling to them.

The starting point is to be clear on whom you want to reach. Who are the targets? Mechanical engineers with experience in deep-sea oil exploration? Over-the-Road drivers who prefer long-haul and working in a team? They converge in very specific places.

Are you looking for students, new grads, moms looking to fill a few hours a day, semi-retired people too active or too financially dependent to retire altogether? There are lots of pools of talent that are underutilised because they aren’t looking for full-time work.

Once you are clear on whom you want to reach, you will need to find out what they read, how they network, and what communities they frequent… then each will need to be engaged in a conversation that is relevant to them.

Read more at www.HiringSmartAmerica.com or www.HiringSmart.ca

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