Recruiting Myth #2: We Only Recruit When We Have an Immediate Need

Editor’s Note: Humetrics CEO Mel Kleiman has been helping employers standardize and systemize the way they recruit, select, and retain frontline hourly employees/managers for over 30 years. He knows what works — and what doesn’t. This is the second of his “Recruiting Myths.”

By Mel Kleiman

There are too many other demands on our time so we only recruit when we have an immediate need.

Recruiting is like bathing – it’s only effective if you do it every day. If you only recruit when you have “the time,” you severely limit your ability to attract the best. When you believe you don’t have the time, you narrow a big window of opportunity down to a keyhole.

If you don’t recruit until you actually need to hire someone, the results are like grocery shopping on an empty stomach – you’ll grab the first thing that looks good. Feeling pressured to hire someone causes you to be less selective and often results in a bad hiring decision.

Effective recruiting is an on-going process. It is the same as – and just as important as – your marketing efforts to attract new clients. Effective recruiting is proactive and consistent.

This was originally published on Mel Kleiman’s Humetrics blog. His first Recruiting Myth was “Our Company Job Board and Websites are Our Most Effective Recruiting Tool.”