WEB EXCLUSIVE: 7 Tips for Locating Qualified Employees

Conversations in Alberta around finding qualified staff tend to take on a broken record quality, with the same line playing over and over: Too many jobs, too few workers to choose from. Here are seven tips for locating people to round out your company’s roster, courtesy of Kathryn Cox, permanent search division manager at Alberta-based Design Group Staffing Inc.

1. Be proactive
“Being proactive is the first step,” says Cox. “[Employers] think they can’t interview people a year before they need them. You don’t have to interview but you can start looking and put the word out on the street. There are often times when an employer will say, ‘I need an accountant or I need whomever, and they [hire] in haste because it’s reactive and not proactive. They find someone, their resume has the skill-sets, but they end up being mismatched. If employers don’t realign it throughout the course of the relationship, the relationship will be short lived.”

2. Talk to your competitors
“More often than not, when you open a door to a competitor, they’ll open a door in return,” explains Cox. “Yes there is competition, but people can work co-operatively. If they help you out a little with your recruitment, maybe there’s a way that both of you can work together and provide each other clientele.”

3. Talk to your colleagues
You’ve talked to your competitors; now talk to your colleagues: people at networking events and members of your professional associations. Tell them about your potential growth, your goals, why people enjoy working for you, says Cox. “It creates that buzz about your environment where people start coming to you, instead of you always seeking them out. It’s more holistic business-sense. It’s not just filling a position and recruiting for a position – you’re giving your business so many more benefits by promoting it, marketing it, branding it and becoming an employer of choice.”

4. Look within the company ranks
Often the most qualified employees for the job you’re trying to fill already work for you. Review your current employee skills and career progression to see if one might be the right fit for the new position. “It’s easier to fill an entry-level position over a specialized one,” Cox says. “It’s really easy to put some money into the employees that are trusted and tried and you rely on, and move them up the chain and then backfill entry-level positions. The best place and the easiest way to go about that is to attend job fairs. Phone NAIT, SAIT, the U of A. They will circulate your need to all of their alumni and to all of the new graduates coming out. Get people when they’re new and fresh, eager to learn – it’s a fantastic time to add them to your roster to help build your company.”

5. Seek referrals
Set up an employee referral system and your employees will have an incentive for bringing good people into the company. “Say you put an ad in the paper. It’s going to cost a couple of grand. Why don’t you give it to an employee and get a really good, solid referral, rather then taking a gamble on a few resumes in from an ad? Ads just don’t work anymore, so forget about them,” says Cox.

6. Explore online social networking
Get online and join some local and professional associations – these sites are veritable goldmines for potential new hires. “There’s a bunch of new websites. I have to admit I am an old-fashioned recruiter. I use the phone,” says Cox. “But a lot of recruiters are doing things online. You can look at web pages like LinkedIn, and there are associations within those networks, so I can type in recruitment and bring up 20 different associations that I can join where other recruiters are online chatting and asking questions. They’re sharing job orders, asking, ‘Do you have candidates for these individuals?’”

7. Turn to your vendors and customers
“If I’m looking for a civil engineer, I can call up my network of civil engineers to see if anyone is interested,” says Cox. “If they aren’t, then I ask them if they know anyone who may be interested in the opportunity. You can do that with vendors and clientele, in so much as they may know a certain part of your industry better than you do. Whether it’s adding to your purchasing department or your group of IT support staff, if you outsource, you have a vendor, so speak to them.”

Current Issue