Let’s Look At Some Out-Of-Ordinary Places To Hire Employees

The single gripe that everyone in our industry shares is not being able to hire qualified workers in any part of their business. These are strange times when millions of people are out of work and yet placing a help-wanted ad brings no calls other than employment agencies trying to sell you their services. So, let’s put on our thinking caps and try new ideas.

Just about everybody is paying more in wages and benefits. How then do you stick out from the crowd? Let’s go to some new recruiting sites. Don’t be afraid here. Be out of the ordinary. Call high school counselors in an area of twenty-five miles around your office. These counselors know who didn’t go to college and are looking in the job market for a good career position. You may be calling a hundred schools. These calls are great to be done by one of the folks in your office. That’s fine. Be ready to give a one minute pitch about your company and the benefits of working with you. You will teach an important trade to the right individuals. You are a great company to work for with a solid team of co-workers. There will be some overtime as well so earnings can be outstanding. And, of course, you are competitive in your wages and benefits.

Remember all you need is one counselor to go to bat for you. The other source in high schools is the mechanical arts teacher(s). They know who has “good hands” and who has a good work ethic.

You will need to prepare a one page flyer that you can send by email, snail mail or fax for the teachers and counselors to put up on a bulletin board or for them to send to students. You cannot offer to pay a bonus to any high school folks, but you can ask if they have charitable opportunities, like a scholarship fund, and offer to make a donation to the fund for each employee you hire.

Next, call the probation department of your local judicial office. They will have people who need to get a job to fulfill court orders. Have the same one-pager ready to go. Don’t be afraid that you are going to get criminals. You can specify what offenses you won’t consider hiring from. For instance, I would eliminate any one who used a gun in a crime; anyone who committed a sexual crime and anyone who committed arson. There are plenty of folks who get caught up in the “system”, can’t afford a lawyer and do a short time in jail. These people are desperate to get a good job and understand they will be on probation with you for a really extended time, say one year. I used this plan when hiring for my glass business and it worked well.

The same as above, call every half-way house in your area. They are looking to place folks after they have fully recovered from the problem that brought them to this house.

Prepare a flyer, same idea as the one pager above, to leave with every customer. Offer to make a donation of some amount to your client’s favorite charity for recommending a person that you hire. If your client loved your service, they will be happy to help you find an employee. Don’t be upset if they give you a strange charity. Just do it.

Do your employees love working for you? Give a current employee a $500 bonus for recommending an employee that is employed for 90 days.

Call or write every house of worship in your communities up to 25 miles. Same story line. This is one of the better sources for hiring that I ever used. Same ideas of a donation to a specified fund at the house of worship for each employee that makes the ninety day mark.

When you hire a person using the out-of-the-box methods and the person is a success, say after ninety days, call your local newspaper and ask them if they want a feel-good story about how you helped a person in need with a new job and they are happy at work. The PR value of this is immeasurable and may bring in another worker or two.

OK, you get the idea. Be out of the ordinary and you will tap the job marker. Good luck.