Recruiting is a form of marketing where it is crucial to understand the unique needs of each of your niche customers. Unfortunately, it is difficult for most managers and recruiters to understand the unique needs and wants of certain groups of people. Since the workforce gets less homogeneous as each day passes, recruiters now need “insider” advice to better understand the needs of those whom they are recruiting. Developing unique and tailored messages that increase the quality and the volume of applicants is essential if you want to win the “war” for talent. For example, it’s quite a stretch to send managers to college campuses wearing “wingtip shoes” and driving their “father’s Oldsmobile”–and expect the students to relate to them. (I know several recruiters who think “South Park” is a park and “Ice T” is a drink!) Keeping abreast is especially difficult in certain areas, which I describe as “harder for outsiders to understand” interest areas. Such interest areas might include those of Gen-Xer’s, older workers, recent immigrants, and working women. The difficulty in understanding the people you are trying to recruit (or retain) is not limited to age or diversity. As little as a decade ago, it was possible for a recruiter to understand a majority of the jobs they recruited for. But times and jobs have changed. For example, knowing the terminology and relating to complex software “geeks” is not easy in a software world that changes at Internet speed. If recruiting (and retention) efforts are be successful in these “harder for outsiders to understand” interest areas, recruiters need to get “second opinions” before they implement a recruiting strategy. One of the best solutions to this problem is to develop a “recruiting advisor board” made up of both internal and external members of these unique groups. Some of the reasons that second opinions are becoming more necessary in recruiting include:
Who else uses advisory boards? Universities, affirmative action offices, foundations, and product development teams routinely use advisory boards and focus groups to help steer their programs. Product development and marketing professionals in particular are experts in getting outside opinions. Three of the most effective tools used by market researchers to understand their customers are focus groups, surveys, and advisory boards. In this article, let’s focus on the last one of these: advisory boards. The goals of a recruiting advisory board might include:
The basic steps in setting up a recruitment advisory board include:
Possible problems Generally, recruiting advisory boards are not advocacy groups or substitutes for EE0 or affirmative action. Although there might be some overlap and cooperation between these roles, the primary function of a recruiting board is to help us improve the design of our recruiting tools and strategies, so that we can successfully recruit more individuals from these “harder for outsiders to understand” interest areas. Efforts to get “perfect representation” and to expand the role outside of the recruiting function are bound to fail. Conclusion As the workforce becomes less homogeneous, the role of the recruiter will become increasingly more difficult. As applicants in different “interest areas” like women, working mothers, gays, Gen-Xer’s and “geeks” become more unique and demanding, recruiters need to develop new ways to better understand their needs. In addition to market research tools like focus groups and surveys, advisory boards can play a major role in helping recruiters understand their target market. By involving members from these interest areas, recruiters can get the help they need, and avoid recruiting efforts that are out of alignment with the applicant’s unique “culture.”