A few companies that have been forced into layoffs are slowly turning their finances around to the point that they can once again think about hiring. If you find yourself in this fortunate position, don’t start thanking your lucky stars just yet. Because now you have to wade through a sea of candidates to find the handful that are going to provide the best fit for your company. Even setting aside those applicants that are simply unqualified could still leave you with an overwhelming pile of potential hires. And you don’t even want to think about how much time it will take to interview them all. Instead, why not make your meet-and-greet sessions a little easier by utilizing recruiting events so that you can shake a lot of hands in just a couple of days? Here are a few options for events that may help you narrow down your pool of candidates a little more quickly.
For starters, you could call local college campuses (or even high schools) to find out about upcoming career days. Participation in such a school-based event will practically guarantee that you are exposed to people who are (or soon will) be qualified to fill positions with your company. And they’ll not only be excited about securing a job before graduation (a rare coup these days), but they’re likely eager to get started on a career path. While an experienced employee may seem more appealing from a certain standpoint (less training, perhaps), even those who have been in the industry for a while will have a learning curve with your company, they may demand a higher salary, and if they are seriously over-qualified, they will likely keep looking for a better job elsewhere.
Of course, you could also look for citywide events (check your community calendar, city pages, or Chamber of Commerce website to see about becoming involved in local job fairs). But if you’re on a schedule, you may want to think about hosting such an event yourself. You could do this at your office building, perhaps on a weekend, or you could get other local businesses involved and split the cost of renting a hotel ballroom or area parking lot for the event. The long and short of it is that you want to meet a lot of people so that you can get a feel for who they are immediately (something no piece of paper can tell you).
The truth is that some portion of your decision is going to be based not on how a candidate looks on paper, but how they appear in person. It’s not like an applicant has to have a smart suit and a leather briefcase (although brief cases couldn’t hurt if you’re recruiting for corporate positions). You should keep in mind that not all applicants will have the money on hand to afford work attire (especially in this economy). But they should be clean and presentable nonetheless; even someone with very little extra dough can go to the Goodwill and find a pair of slacks and an oxford for an interview. You really just want to make sure they have the wherewithal to know what is and isn’t appropriate for the office environment, so attire and confidence definitely make a difference, and you’ll have an easier time making that determination with a person in front of you rather than a piece of paper.