Would it be amazing to have a line of qualified candidates waiting for an opening in your organization? It can happen by abandoning the old-fashioned Talent Acquisition method of recruiting and transforming your company into a Talent Attraction firm.

What is wrong with Talent Acquisition for professionals? Nearly everything. This is the reason many companies are having difficulty finding qualified professionals to work with them. How about Talent Acquisition for hourly labor? Finding strong candidates who will work for hourly wages is difficult across all industries today.

A Human Resources department is an important function for compensation, benefits, training and development, employee relations, culture, and HR tech. Please note that these are all Administrative or Compliance functions. When was the first time that a compliance officer ever led an organization in Sales? This would probably only happen if they owned the business. Recruiting, rather than falling into an admin and compliance category, mirrors the SALES Process perfectly all the way through to the Retention of Top Employees. 

Isn’t it time to move recruiting to operations, where they are feeling the pain from a lack of qualified candidates? Even with hourly workers, many times the HR department is so focused on compliance that they ignore common-sense ways to attract talented labor.

Companies that embrace Talent Attraction find that people WANT to work with them. Are your managers your top recruiters? They should be. Why? The best managers are always seeking better talent to upgrade their team – just like college and professional basketball coaches.

The ELEPHANT (caps because elephants are big!) in the room is how do we attract top hourly workers? My Talent Attraction Consulting business is not focused on “just” executives or “just” professionals. My consulting is focused on my client. This means that if they need hourly workers, we create a path to attract hourly workers.

As a consultant, in my conversations with some CFA members, I have been able to open doors to state and regional organizations prime for tapping top-level workforce talent through government programs with the military. These individuals are already trained to do their construction jobs and obey direct orders. Once you hire one, you have a pipeline to others who are interested in working in your location. This is called Talent Attraction! In just one quick conversation, I have been able to align such a focus with the message and tools necessary to take immediate action… and it works.

Once your company develops a vein of potential employees, assign someone to mine that vein. Just as in mining, eventually, that vein may stop producing at some point in the future. This is evidence that recruiting is NOT Magic. As the employment economy changes, the difficulty in sourcing and identifying the best talent also changes. It is important to adjust your sources and focus on the next vein—and there is always another vein.

Sometimes, Talent Attraction has candidates lining up at your doors, generally during recessions when you may be slow. Have you considered interviewing those candidates? Select the ones who may be desirable. Promise them that you will reach out when the business turns around—and then do so! Never assume that they found another job or a position that they love. That person could be one of your coming Stars!

There are other times when it seems that there is no one in your state who is looking for another position. I understand. Remember, few companies have access to my articles (or will read them if they have access). Therefore, many will have missed my article in Concrete Facts last quarter, “Is Your Company’s Practice to Plan for Top Employee Retention?”

This means that their employees may be recruited by you. Hey, you do not have to be the company that is shorthanded.

If you find and hire just one of their good employees, you now have the leverage to incentivize (with a referral bonus) your new employee to attract other good employees from their previous company. Now let’s be clear, CFA members should not go after employees from fellow CFA members! 

This is Talent Attraction at its best! Build on this success and find new companies that need to shed some of their good employees onto you.

You got this!

Editor’s note:  Bill Humbert, RecruiterGuy.com, is a consultant member of the Concrete Foundations Association. He offers these quarterly articles as a way of inspiring workers in this industry to think more strategically and creatively about the talent attraction and retention processes. As valuable as this free advice found in Concrete Facts is, how much more could you and your company benefit from becoming a member of the Association? How much more could you benefit from a work session or two with RecruiterGuy?