Recruitment never stops

At The Shepherd Group, we’re striving to be proactive in anticipating challenges before they even arise. One such challenge is recruitment.Year round processAlthough businesses often structure recruiting around their budgets and finances, recruiting is actually a year round process. There is usually more money for recruitment at certain types of the year such as the beginning of a fiscal year or given quarter. This is when some firms have the most money to throw at candidates, but this recruitment model is not competitive. In order to drive our businesses to a new level of performance, we have to shift our thinking by looking for talent around the clock because it may become available at any moment.As with other aspects of business, we can think of recruitment as a “pipeline.” A pipeline of talent is a set of connections in your network you can call on to quickly fill personnel needs as they arise. Developing pipelines means staying in communication and up to date with people. This allows you to collect information on potential candidates and continuously build relationships so that you know who you’re hiring when duty calls.This way you can keep your recruitment engine warm and humming, ready to spring into high gear, which is preferable to starting up the recruitment process from scratch every time you need to make a hire, especially if you’re in a rush. Recruiting all year long, you can avoid rushing a given hire or recruitment and avoid headaches down the road because you’re always ready by being proactive.Having a pipeline of talent also allows you to spend more time examining each candidate, following his or her progress over time as well as getting to know them to determine if that person is a good fit for your company. Putting a pipeline in place also means you can meet with potential hires with no expectations, merely to connect and interact without any of the stress of the hiring process.Passive recruitingPipeline recruiting is also known as “passive recruiting” because it targets “passive” job seekers – the people currently employed who are nevertheless keeping an eye out for new opportunities. Employer and employee interests meet here as both sides are open to possibilities.Recruiting in this manner also means your company has higher visibility because your brand is always top of mind. Over time, people will come to associate you with a consistent talent seeker and approach your firm before they do others. Basically, you want to be the first company on people’s minds when they start looking for work.And even if they don’t join your organization themselves, they will direct their connections into your arms because they know you’re the kind of organization that’s always scouting. They’re advocates for your brand and ethos without even knowing it.Make no mistake – your competitors are scouring far and wide for talented and driven individuals to outsmart and outsell you. There’s no time to recruit like the present because if it’s often a now or never situation. Don’t let your business wither.