People are the heart of every business. The better people you hire, the better business you have. Some people are just meant to be in their jobs. You may know such individuals — someone who thrives as a receptionist or someone who lives to sell. Think about how great your organization would be if you staffed every position with people who lived for their jobs.
The following list presents some of the best ways to find candidates for your positions:
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Internal candidates: In most organizations, the first place to look for candidates is within the organization.
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Personal referrals: Whether from co-workers, professional colleagues, friends, relatives, or neighbors, you can often find great candidates through referrals.
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Temporary agencies: Hiring temps, or temporary employees, is routine for many companies. The best part is that when you hire temps, you get the opportunity to try out employees before you buy them.
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Professional associations: Association newsletters, magazines, websites, blogs, and social networking sites are great places to advertise your openings when you’re looking for specific expertise, because your audience is already prescreened for you.
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Employment agencies: These are a good, albeit pricey (with a cost of up to a third of the employee’s first-year salary, or more), alternative.
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Websites and blogs: If you don’t already have a great recruiting page on your company website, you should. In addition to this baseline item, also consider setting up company blogs where employees can describe what they do and how they do it.
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Social networking sites: Two sites in particular deserve your attention if you hope to broaden your search for good candidates: Facebook and LinkedIn. You can run ad campaigns on Facebook to target the individuals you’re hoping to hire by college, geographic area, and even hobbies. (In fact, you can run a campaign that shows your employment ad to people who work at your competition!)
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Traditional job-hunting sites: A number of job-hunting sites have become popular with people looking for new positions. This makes them good platforms from which to pitch your own job openings. Some of the most popular include CareerBuilder.com, Monster.com, and Craigslist. You’ll likely have to pay to post your jobs on these sites — prices vary.