May 30, 2019 at 17:30Alternative recruitment channels
The article will focus on alternative channels for personnel search, as one of the solutions to the problem of staff shortages and the features of working with this solution.
Modern trends in the development of society are aimed at accelerating human life, changing ways of communication and interaction of people. The channels of interaction between potential candidates and the employer are not lagging behind this trend. If a recruiter wants to maintain his efficiency and quickly find high-quality personnel, then he must remain in the trend of the latest trends. The problem can be more clearly represented as follows (Fig. 1):
Imagine that you or your recruitment managers use all the well-known classic recruitment channels, which conditionally belong to category A. But due to the emergence of new communication channels and the rapid change in the information environment, new recruitment channels appear, which we will categorize B and C. It is logical to assume that the recruiter who uses all three categories of search channels will be more efficient. The ratio of the volume of the search channels is presented in the figure conditionally to demonstrate the general meaning.
I myself (like my colleagues from other companies) have repeatedly encountered the problem of staff shortages in work, and alternative selection channels are a very good solution. But this does not mean that you urgently need to look for alternative recruitment channels (of which there are quite a lot at the moment, and they are appearing more often), since this solution has certain conditions.
In which case, alternative recruitment channels will solve the problem of staff shortages?
Let's take a closer look at the other facets of this problem. Many managers, when they learn about new working methods or ways to increase efficiency, intrusively try to implement them in their company / department, not understanding the essence of the issue and the nuances (limitations) of applying these solutions. Therefore, the first question to ask yourself before exploring and using alternative channels for staff selection is “why?”.
Alternative recruitment channels
So, you have come to the conclusion that there is a problem with recruitment, and it is concentrated around recruitment channels. Let's define the terms and conditionally divide the recruitment channels into several categories (the division is very subjective and is proposed by me personally).
Under this category there will be “traditional” recruitment channels, such as work sites, mass media advertising in the relevant sections, recommendations of colleagues and acquaintances, classic platforms that all recruitment specialists are used to using.
This includes channels that were considered new and modern at the time of the formation of the classical theory of recruiting: forums, LinkedIn, social networks, closed professional communities and similar channels.
These include:
The diagram below shows the data on the selection channels for one of the offices of the company in which I work for 2018.
The office is engaged in software development, it employs highly qualified specialists in the field of IT. Over the year, the office more than doubled, the increase in staff by the beginning of the year was 239%. Category C channels were only used when Category A and B channels failed.
Alternative personnel search channels are a powerful but highly variable tool in solving the problem of staff shortages. Given the demographic pit and the deterioration of education, the problem of staff shortages and competition for them is very acute. The study of alternative channels of personnel search is a very vast area, and for large companies with high competition for personnel, this area is of particular value. In such companies, it would be expedient and efficient to single out studies of alternative channels for recruiting personnel in a separate direction, similar to how the study of alternative sales channels will be allocated in a separate direction of marketing.
Modern trends in the development of society are aimed at accelerating human life, changing ways of communication and interaction of people. The channels of interaction between potential candidates and the employer are not lagging behind this trend. If a recruiter wants to maintain his efficiency and quickly find high-quality personnel, then he must remain in the trend of the latest trends. The problem can be more clearly represented as follows (Fig. 1):
Imagine that you or your recruitment managers use all the well-known classic recruitment channels, which conditionally belong to category A. But due to the emergence of new communication channels and the rapid change in the information environment, new recruitment channels appear, which we will categorize B and C. It is logical to assume that the recruiter who uses all three categories of search channels will be more efficient. The ratio of the volume of the search channels is presented in the figure conditionally to demonstrate the general meaning.
I myself (like my colleagues from other companies) have repeatedly encountered the problem of staff shortages in work, and alternative selection channels are a very good solution. But this does not mean that you urgently need to look for alternative recruitment channels (of which there are quite a lot at the moment, and they are appearing more often), since this solution has certain conditions.
In which case, alternative recruitment channels will solve the problem of staff shortages?
Let's take a closer look at the other facets of this problem. Many managers, when they learn about new working methods or ways to increase efficiency, intrusively try to implement them in their company / department, not understanding the essence of the issue and the nuances (limitations) of applying these solutions. Therefore, the first question to ask yourself before exploring and using alternative channels for staff selection is “why?”.
- Do you have a problem with selecting quality personnel on time or is it likely that such a problem will appear in the foreseeable future (launch of a new project, other prospects for the expansion of the company)? This question is important to answer, because when working with various selection channels, the recruiter spends time on additional work (creating accounts for working with new channels, posting vacancies, monitoring various channels, working with responses from various channels), which is directly proportional to the number of channels selection. If at the moment you do not have problems with the selection of personnel, then using alternative selection channels will be inefficient. The exception is the situation when this work is done to increase the professionalism of the recruiter, or in that unforeseen case,
- If the answer to this question is yes, and your company has a problem with recruiting, then the next step is understanding what the problem is. The most classic and effective method for determining the problem of recruitment is to study the funnel of recruitment. Perhaps the problem with the selection of personnel is not related to the recruitment channels, and connecting alternative recruitment channels will not bring you closer to solving the problem, but will only aggravate the situation, as the recruiter will spend time on ineffective actions.
Alternative recruitment channels
So, you have come to the conclusion that there is a problem with recruitment, and it is concentrated around recruitment channels. Let's define the terms and conditionally divide the recruitment channels into several categories (the division is very subjective and is proposed by me personally).
Category A
Under this category there will be “traditional” recruitment channels, such as work sites, mass media advertising in the relevant sections, recommendations of colleagues and acquaintances, classic platforms that all recruitment specialists are used to using.
Category B
This includes channels that were considered new and modern at the time of the formation of the classical theory of recruiting: forums, LinkedIn, social networks, closed professional communities and similar channels.
Category C
These include:
- channels that are considered modern today: mobile applications for finding work on geolocation, non-core applications and services that differ from forums and social networks, but which can be used for staffing (mobile dating application - Tinder)
- channels, which are, on the one hand, new independent platforms for personnel search, and, on the other hand, these are new channels that integrate into old personnel search sites and give them alternative access. The most striking example is the change in the search system for profiles on LinkedIn, the new search system significantly reduced the recruiters' capabilities and almost blocked access to the channel. However, in response to these changes, additional services began to appear through which you can search for profiles on LinkedIn in the previously familiar mode. Similar services are available for searching developer profiles on the GitHub professional website. The site was not originally intended for communication and job search, it does not have a heading for posting vacancies, but thanks to the use of additional services, this site can also be a source for staff recruitment. An official chat bot has been added to the VKontakte social network, which is engaged in staff recruitment. Another, very large and powerful modern channel is messengers. The users of instant messengers, as well as the users of smartphones, became elementary in number more than a few years ago. On the one hand, messengers form their large platforms for staff search, and on the other hand, various professional communities go to messengers, which, thanks to messengers, simplifies the access of recruiters (Telegram will be the most striking example in this area for Russia). like smartphone users, it has become elementary in number more than a few years ago. On the one hand, messengers form their large platforms for staff search, and on the other hand, various professional communities go to messengers, which, thanks to messengers, simplifies the access of recruiters (Telegram will be the most striking example in this area for Russia). like smartphone users, it has become elementary in number more than a few years ago. On the one hand, messengers form their large platforms for staff search, and on the other hand, various professional communities go to messengers, which, thanks to messengers, simplifies the access of recruiters (Telegram will be the most striking example in this area for Russia).
The diagram below shows the data on the selection channels for one of the offices of the company in which I work for 2018.
The office is engaged in software development, it employs highly qualified specialists in the field of IT. Over the year, the office more than doubled, the increase in staff by the beginning of the year was 239%. Category C channels were only used when Category A and B channels failed.
Alternative personnel search channels are a powerful but highly variable tool in solving the problem of staff shortages. Given the demographic pit and the deterioration of education, the problem of staff shortages and competition for them is very acute. The study of alternative channels of personnel search is a very vast area, and for large companies with high competition for personnel, this area is of particular value. In such companies, it would be expedient and efficient to single out studies of alternative channels for recruiting personnel in a separate direction, similar to how the study of alternative sales channels will be allocated in a separate direction of marketing.